The Ocean's Job

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11/12, the Italian Job or any of their characters.

Kuriei 137 thanks heaps for the review.

John gave Stella a quick hug as he got off the plane, over her shoulder he saw Danny and Rusty walk over to speak to an older man not far off.

"That's Saul," Stella told him following his line of vision, "I think Linus asked him to help."

John nodded and looked around, "Where is Linus?" he asked turning back to his daughter.

Stella gave a little shrug, not looking half as unfussed as she wanted the gesture to convey. "I haven't seen him," she told her father "Turk said he just disappeared after they got back, didn't even bother celebrating."

"They did the job?" John asked surprised.

"They did something," she answered, "I don't know the details, but Basher said Linus picked a Worthington 1000!"

"You're kidding," John answered impressed "I thought he sucked at that stuff. I must be a really good teacher."

Stella was about to respond when Danny walked over to them smiling, turning towards Stella he thanked her for getting them out, only to be told she hadn't really done anything.

Turned back to John he asked, "Are you guys up for a game? Reuben and Charlie are going to take care of getting the money to Benedict, and some of the other guys want to have a poker night."

John exchanged a quick look with Stella before turning back to Danny, "Sure," he said nodding "That could be fun."

Stella waited until Danny was out of hearing range to turn back to her father. "I think I should go find Linus. He's been gone a while."

"He'll come back." John told her, his tone was so convincing she almost believed him, "he can look after himself."

Stella didn't answer, she knew he could look after himself, but that wasn't the point.

Seeing that his daughter still wasn't convinced John added, "We can leave a note under his door so he knows where we are, and then he can join the party if he wants to."

Stella just nodded, still not too happy about the plan, but she knew that Linus knew she was there, and that if he wanted to talk he'd find her.

Her father took her by the shoulder and followed the others leading her off the landing.

Reuben had to admit he was impressed with how Charlie handled himself for someone his age. It could take years to move that much gold, but using a few contacts and a ridiculously thick pawn shop owner they had done it in 4 hours.

"Okay," Charlie said looking up at Reuben "We're done." Reuben just nodded as Charlie packed up Lyle's laptop, which he had been using to page the money through, and stood up. Then he realised it would take a few hours for the transaction to actually happen. "Should you call him?" he asked "let him know it's coming."

Reuben didn't answer for a moment and started walking out the door, "No need," he told Charlie, "Benedict will be checking it."

He sounded so sure that Charlie didn't even try to question him.

Charlie took a sip form the bourbon in his hand, watching as Rusty racked up another game of pool. They had started with trying to play poker, but gave up after a few games, no one could concentrate and Turk kept asking Danny to check his phone in case Benedict had called, whilst Danny was addiment he wouldn't.

Charlie looked up as John leant next to him against the bar. "How do you think he's taking it?" John asked, his eyes were fastened on Stella across the room, but Charlie understood who he was talking to, and about.

"I think he's taking it as well as he can." Charlie answered honestly. John nodded, but Charlie knew him long and well enough ton know it was more of a maybe then an agreement. "You don't think he is?"

John didn't answer for a moment, his eyes were still focused on Stella talking to Basher across the small bar. "I think he hasn't slept for over 2 hours in a week, that he's made himself un-contactable twice in that week (which he hasn't done since he was fourteen), and that in a group as large as this he'd rather act and lie than have anyone feeling uncomfortable or pitying him." He took a sip from his glass, waiting for Charlie to consider what he had just said. They stood in silence for a few minutes watching as the game played out. Charlie was about to go over when John spoke again, "they had their own language."

Charlie paused, confused for a moment "Linus and Bobby?" he asked rhetorically, "yeah, they were close."

"It should have been me."

At that Charlie stood a bit straighter, "No," he said automatically, "You…"

He was cut off by John continuing as if he had never said anything, "We shouldn't have needed Bobby, and then it would have been me."

Charlie was about to argue that it wasn't John's fault, and that nobody blamed him for what had happened, but he was cut off again. "How do you think she'd take it?"

"She'd be devastated." Charlie answered automatically, surprised at the turn the conversation was taking.

"She'd be upset." John responded nodding, "but she'd be okay." He paused, watching as Stella shook her head at something Basher was saying. "We're not close."

Charlie knew John had always regretted spending so much time in jail while his daughter was growing up. Usually he would say something. That it wasn't John's fault, and he had done the best he could. But he didn't, because he knew John just wanted to get it off his chest.

John drained his glass and placed it on the bar. He was about to go and join the blackjack game Frank was dealing Reuben, but stopped turning back to Charlie. "She'll get married one day, have her own family." He paused, "I hope I'm here to see that."

Charlie didn't realise he was holding his breath, frozen, until he gasped from lack of oxygen. John was already across the room by then, and Charlie silently chided himself for being caught of guard like that. 'You can't just freeze because someone says something you didn't expect.'

He looked for Stella and saw she was no longer talking to Basher, but standing near the door watching as some of the others played pool.

Checking that no one was watching, he walking over to her quickly, grabbed her hand and pulled her outside.

Stella spun around to face Charlie surprised. "What's wrong?" She asked worried. He looked anxious, and kind of worried, which was a very knew looked for him.

"I think we should tell John." He said quickly.

Stella just looked back at him, still surprised, and trying to catch up with what he was thinking. "You want to tell him now?"

She watched as her fiancée nodded slowly, "well not right now," he said "but, yeah, soon." He looked back at her, and could tell straight away that she wasn't going to. "You don't want to."

It wasn't a question, and he looked so confused that Stella rushed to say something. "It's not that I don't want to. I do. But with everything going on right now I think we all need a little time to get our heads around it before opening a whole new can of worms. Is that okay?"

Charlie nodded "You're right." He didn't sound convinced of that, but Stella decided to let it go. "I'm gonna go back inside."

She just nodded, not trusting herself to say the right thing. She barely registered when Charlie dropped a quick kiss on her cheek before she heard the door creak.

Stella stood outside a while longer just thinking about how things would be now. She knew they had to tell her father eventually, it just wasn't a conversation she was looking forward to having.

And then there was the wedding.

When she was younger and had dreamt about her wedding after her mother died, Annie had always been there. Helping her get ready, making sure the veil was straight. In the past week she had been too worried about Linus to really think about how this would change her life.

Of course that thought just led to her wondering where the hell Linus was. He'd been gone for over six hours now and it was almost midnight. Sighing, she looked up and down the road, hoping he'd gotten the note she left on his hotel bed and come by.

Stella looked up at the sky, trying to make out some of the stars. That was probably the only thing she hated about big cities, their lights. Thankfully they were in a quiet part of town and most places were closed with only a few milling up and down the street.

She was lost in her thoughts and didn't notice anyone coming up behind her until she felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped spinning around. She relaxed and smiled when she saw it was only Linus, smiling she gave him a tight hug.

"You okay?" she asked, stepping back.

Linus nodded, not looking at her. "Where is everyone?"

"Inside, nice work with the safe by the way."

He shrugged, "took a few goes, you could have done it in half the time."

"Probably," She answered seriously, "Dad's pretty proud of himself for teaching you though." Linus gave a small laugh at hearing that, and Stella relaxed a little. "Feel any better?"

Linus just shrugged again moving towards the door, "some people wait years for revenge." He answered. "Come one, I'm betting your Dad doesn't know you were out here alone."

She smiled as he opened the door, "I think it's okay if my father and a dozen of his friends are 10 feet away."

Only Saul noticed as they came back inside and gave Linus a small nod that seemed to mean 'good work'. Stella couldn't help wondering how the hell the rest of them were good thieves if they couldn't even hear the door.

Stella went to get herself a drink while Linus walked over towards the pool table to watch the game.

The seconds hand on the wall clock had hardly passed midnight when the dor banged open and a man walked in. Danny spun around in his seat watching as the man stood calmly in front of everyone.

No one said anything.

The man turned to look directly and Danny, and the next part happened so quickly that at some point in time everyone in the room would look back on it an wonder if it had been a dream.

They all heard the words, "He said two weeks." Then a loud bang, and the man was gone.

No body moved for a moment, frozen in shock.

Danny jumped up, "Is everyone alright?"

Basher made a small indistinguishable noise and Danny looked over at him, saw he was fine, and followed his gaze to the floor. There was a loud noise of chairs scraped of the floor and feet as everyone reacted.

"Call an ambulance!" Danny told Rusty as he kneeled down in front of the kid.

Stella was next to him, she had Linus's hand in hers and was trying to get him to look at her.

He was still awake and breathing, but there was blood all over the left side of his head, and a pathway of blood down the wall where he had been leaning when his knees went out.

Danny blocked out all the noises behind him and continued trying to get the kid's attention.

Linus blinked slowly and looked right at him, in the eye, Danny didn't think he had done that since just before Matsui. But the kid didn't seem to see him. Turning to his left he looked at Stella and squeezed her hand a little. "It doesn't hurt." He promised her in a very weak voice, making her smile a little through her tears.

Danny heard Rusty say something about an ambulance on its way but wasn't paying attention. Danny wondered if he'd ever noticed just how young Linus was. Well obviously he had known the kid was younger then the rest of the team, and Bobby wasn't so much older then himself that his son could have been to old, but still. He couldn't have been much older than 20. Danny had been doing this job for a long time, and had taken a lot of things from innocent people and never felt regret. But he felt it now. Linus had probably been too young to start off with something like Vegas, and Danny had to wonder if had the kid been anyone but Bobby Caldwell's, if he still would have taken him.

Rusty hadn't wanted him there, and had been very vocal about it. Rusty always knew who to bring, he knew what people would do if put in a certain situation, and he had been certain Linus would fold. But the kid didn't, and no one ever proved Rusty wrong. Maybe that was why Danny liked him so much, why he insisted on actually training him when he had never had even the slightest interest in it before. And now he regretted it.

Danny heard sirens approaching and wished they would just hurry up and get here already. Linus was still looking at Stella, but his breathing was getting shallower. His eyes started to droop but he forced them open under his friends pleas to stay with her. The kid's mouth moved slightly as if he was trying to get out words, and Stella moved closer to hear him.

"They're not dead," he whispered so quietly Danny knew only himself and Stella could hear the words, "She…she's not dead."

Danny didn't know what he was talking about. But Stella sat frozen, before sitting back to look at him again, showing her surprise. "Sorry." He whispered.

Danny went to grab Linus' shoulder as his eyes closed, but was pushed out of the way by a paramedic. Standing back he watched with the others as Linus was loaded onto a stretcher and placed inside the ambulance, Stella went with him. Danny heard John tell the driver something about a random shooting and it came back to him. They had to cover this, luckily Rusty was already on it and they quickly worked out a story with John that they could tell the cops at the hospital, 'or morgue' Danny thought.

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AN: Hey did anyone notice Ocean's 11 now has it's own section. I'm not sure how this works am I suppose to move this story over there, or just future ones?