Chapter Two

Lily's Story

The phone rang several times before anyone answered. Lily was becoming impatient, tapping her foot mechanically as if to shake the anger from her. Of course her father was behind all this. He always was. Ever since she had been a child, being the "distraction" while he was pulling a job, Danny Ocean hand always been behind every incredibly embarrassing moment in her entire life.

There was the time he came to fifth grade play, a wad of money sticking out of his pocket that he had "forgotten about", and all the divorcee moms got in a fight over him. There was the time he came to her softball game with a black eye and a torn suit, having just come from a "meeting" with someone named Crusher. There had been the time when everyone in her high school found out her father was doing a minimum of two months incarceration for a theft charge; two months only because he knew the judge. His excuse was usually the same. it wasn't his fault, he didn't plan on it. But he did plan the jobs, and he did command the respect of others. Unfortunately, he always seemed to have one enemy too many, and sometimes his "friends" weren't as reliable as he was. In any matter, he was still her father and she still supported him.

That is, until he had put her through that God awful, painful plane trip.

The phone rang one more time before turning over to the answering machine. Jamming her finger into the "OFF" button on her cellphone, Lily dialed the ten digit number of his cell and held it to her ear. This time, it answered on the first ring. "I'm going to kill you!" she screamed, before he could get a chance to talk.

"Hello?!"

"Tess! Oh my God, I'm so sorry! I thought it was my dad…"

"I guessed as much," Tess laughed, "Danny's in the shower and Isadora and I just came home from the store. Is everything okay?"

"No, I'm going to kill him," she responded, some of her anger subsiding the longer she talked to Tess. Tess was the only woman her father had ever dated that Lily had actually liked, and now he was married to her. It was the first right move he had ever done in her book. "Tell him that, will you?"

"I'll give him the message, but I'm not sure it would come across the right way. A death threat from a spouse is on a different level than one from prodigy. Why? What'd he do this time?"

"He talked to Rusty."

There was silence on the other end. Tess knew exactly what she was talking about, and felt no need for follow up questions. No "But he always talks to Rusty". No "About what?" Her only response was, "He didn't!"

Lily nodded, without realizing Tess couldn't see her. "Yep, and now I'm elbow deep in I.O.U.'s and I don't really have a choice in the matter. I had to beg him just to listen to me, Tess. Do you know how humiliating that was for me?" She had started a frantic pacing, kicking random objects out of her way in the process.

"So what did he say to him?"

"I believe, if I heard Rusty correctly, he said 'You should settle down. Have some kids.'"

"Wow. Well, I'm sure you handled it okay. You always seem to have your wits about you. Except now…Hell, I'd kill him… Oh! Hold on, he's coming out of the bathroom." Tess removed the phone from her ear, but Lily could still hear a hushed argument between them. Tess was shoving the phone in his face, telling him that he had better talk to his daughter. He was trying his best to refuse, knowing he was in trouble.

After a few quiet minutes, she heard his voice chime with a "Hi, sweetie…!"

"Cut the shit, Dad. I'm going to kill you. With a shovel. A very, very blunt shovel. Then, I'm going to find a desolate location that no one dares go near because they think it's sacred or cursed or something. I'm thinking somewhere in Mexico. Then, I'm going to dig a hole and bury you with the same shovel so no one will ever find a body or a murder weapon."

Danny sighed long and hard into the mouthpiece, picturing the sight. Sadly, it was not hard to imagine his daughter standing over his bloody body, a jagged shovel raised over her head in victory. " You've really thought this out, huh? Okay, so what can we do to avoid this whole… killing me…thing?"

"Hide your shovels, because I don't happen to have one handy," she grunted.

"Sweetie," he had to pause and catch himself, because his eldest daughter was not being so sweet at the present moment. "Lily, calm down. He said he'd do it, right? I told you…"

"You told me that he knew I was there! You told me that even though I made an effort to be as far away from him as possible because I, personally, was uncomfortable approaching him just yet, that he knew I had to talk him. You told me that he knew I was there for Reuben and …"

"Lily, please. So I fibbed a little, but I didn't plan on it going this way…"

"You never do!" She had worked herself into such a frenzy, that she was sure she was going to pop a blood vessel if she continued screaming at the rate she was. "Look, Dad. Just go back to being Danny Ocean, criminal mastermind and stop trying to be Danny Ocean, matchmaker. Rusty and I are over, and that's done with. Please stop making me relive the past, because it hurts worse every time I have to reopen that wound. You and Tess worked out after that whole falling out… great. But we're not you and Tess. And you're not giving yourself a chance to see that."

It hurt him to hear Lily talk like that, and a wave of guilt flooded over him. "Where are you?" he choked, bowing his head. He was aware that Tess was watching him, and he was probably going to have to fight some more when the phone line was dropped, so he might as well talk to Lily as long as possible.

"Rusty's hotel in Boston. I had no where else to go, after all. You never told me he was heading to Boston."

Danny could have sworn he had mentioned that when he handed her the plane ticket. "Okay, I'll admit to that mistake." Still, they were together. It might have been fate, instead of a mistake.

"God, Dad. You're never going to change are you? I'm just amazed at how sometimes you seem so proud of the damage you're doing."

He heard her voice become shaky, and quickly squashed the idea that was manifesting in his head. He had no response to her statement, so he remained silent.

She ended the silence with cutting words, "See you in New York," and hung up before he could say goodbye.

It was true, he never was going to change, In that instant, she felt incredibly sorry for Isadora and the years ahead of her. For that little girl's sake, Lily was hoping that Danny was only going to use this rotten behavior towards her. Tess insisted that Isadora lead a normal life, and not be bred for criminal activity like Lily was, and there was a good chance of that happening with the tight leash she kept her husband on. Of course, there was always a chance that Isabel would turn out different.

Lily had been playing with the theory that there was some sort of criminal gene. It made sense to her. Some children are amazing athletes, coming from long lines of other athletes. Some children are geniuses, spawning from other geniuses. Why not criminal ability? She was certainly good at what she did. At least she thought so. And then there's her father... Yes, it all made sense to her. Most of the people her father had surrounded himself with had come from criminal families as well. There had to be a connection. A genetic connection.

Putting away her cellphone, Lily glanced around the empty room. Rusty's bags lay on one bed, hers on another. She had no intention of staying here, and she would have to be bound and gagged to do so. She was not going to embarrass herself any further. With that thought, she walked over to her things and began to prepare to leave. She was going to be gone before Rusty came back, that's for damn sure.

There were two plane tickets to New York in her possession, one for her and one for Rusty. She took one from the side compartment of her bag, and started to unzip his in order to leave it for him. She stuffed it along the side, but paused when she felt other papers brush her fingertips. Curious, and unable to detach herself from old habits, she plucked the papers from their hiding spot and scanned through them. The contents made her jaw drop.

They were pages from a scrap book a friend had made for them back then. Of the both of them. Together. Happy. Smiling. It was all too much for her to handle. Rusty was never the type for that sort of thing – holding onto old memories and keepsakes – and it thoroughly freaked her out. So freaked out, she threw down the pages and ran until she was safely about fifty yards from the hotel room.

Panting, and sagging under the weight of her duffel, she found a small outside café and collapsed into a chair to try to digest it all. This was all wrong. All wrong. She remembered that night like it was yesterday. She remembered so vividly, and all this made less and less sense to her. Had she been wrong. No! she remembered…

Glasses had been throw, plates shattered. Things were aimed at heads, and the screaming could be heard across the city. After barely dodging a vase, Rusty took the advantage of the time it took her to scour the cupboard for something else to throw, and pinned Lily against kitchen counter. "Will you stop and listen?!" he roared, struggling against the intense battle she was putting up. Finally, his wrists gave in and she broke free, slapping him so hard he got knocked to the ground.

"Fuck you, Rusty Ryan! Fuck. You," she retaliated, moving to kick him where the sun don't shine.

Rusty scrambled to his feet and jumped to the opposite side of the couch, which had gotten extremely misplaced in the argument. "Goddammit! Shut the hell up and let me explain! I was working her over!"

"Damn straight you were working her over! In our hotel room! On your knees with your pants down!"

"Lily! She came here, and I couldn't tell her to leave…"

"Yeah, I know you needed her to finish the job," Lily panted, finding herself tiring. She placed her hands on her hips and tried to look as menacing as possible. Her bright blue eyes had turned to a misty blue-black, as if smoke was looming behind her cornea's. If anything, it was putting the fear of God in him. "I'll say you finished the job, and it looked like you finished her, too."

"Lily, I swear…"

She had found her second wind, along with a second vase. "You man-whore! You promised me… you promised me you wouldn't… you promised…" but she couldn't finish the sentence. Tears had started streaming down her cheeks as she collapsed onto the floor. She felt like a toy to him, just something to amuse him until the next shiner toy came along. "I told you I loved you…"

She wanted him to rush to her, to scoop her up in his arms and whisper soothing comments in her ear. She wanted him to hold her, hug her to him like he used to. She wanted him to say he loved her. But he didn't. And she knew he wouldn't. Because he couldn't.

Just thinking about it felt like razors cutting her heart. She had to work next to him now, maybe for months, and pretend like none of this ever happened. Fortunately, she was strong. And one hell of an actress. If one of the two traits didn't work, the other one would. Hopefully.

There had to be a reasonable explanation, she was sure. She thought she knew Rusty, what he was capable of and what he wasn't. Then again, Lily didn't even really know herself anymore.