hey guys! this chapter is really just sort of an longer explanation than chapter five. It also goes into detail about Danny's views on relationships and why he's trying to hook Rusty and Lily up again.

Hope you enjoy!

and review please! this is my first Ocean's fanfic, and constructive critism is welcomed for improvement.

Chapter Seven

Successful Relationships

"Isabel called," Rusty informed, staring at the blueprints to the vault. He had been staring at them since late last night, ever since he had parted ways with Lily.

"When?" Danny was at the mini-bar, mixing a drink. Something red, full of vodka. He had just gotten off the phone with Tess and needed something to help him forget that he was so far away from her and Isadora. Izzy's cold had gotten a little worse, turning into a fever and a nasty cough. He felt bad for his little girl, and wished he could be back with her to read her a bedtime story and dish out the cough medicine when she would finally start to complain. He wanted to be more of a dad to Isadora than he was to Lily. But, then again, Lily hadn't turned out so bad.

"This morning. Says she needs time to think. Something about space, and breathing or something..." Rsty spoke, knocking Danny from his thoughts.

"Ah, so she's having second thoughts."

"No."

Danny stopped, confused. He pivoted ever so slightly in Rusty's direction, squinting at him to express his feeling. "She said she needs space, but she's not having second thoughts?"

Rusty made the small gesture of shaking his head, resting it on his shoulder as his eyebrows arched. Danny quickly understood that Rusty was indicating himself. "Get out of town," he kidded, deciding that Rusty needed a stiff drink too. He went to work at the mini bar, then sat down at his left side. "You? I never would have thought."

Rusty despised when Danny was trying to be sarcastic. He set down the glass Danny had made him on the side of the blueprint, leaving small watermarks. They were going to have to destroy the prints after the job, anyway. A few water rings wouldn't matter. He just didn't want to have a drink right at that moment. All he really wanted was to get the job done and then get away from New York. Rusty didn't feel like himself in New York. He needed to go back to his hotel, to Isabel. Hopefully, once the job was over, everything would go back to normal. New York was playing games with him, and he had no way of fighting back. Rusty had convinced himself it was the air. It had to be. Yes, New York was making him a peson he was not. And Rusty was not liking it. Cracking his fingers, he turned his attention back to the blueprints. "Livingston can handle the computer inside. Stupid bastard figured he spent so much money on a top of the line security system that he didn't have to spend on a decent network system. The only problem is, Linvingston's going to have to do some fieldwork."

"Can he handle that?"

"We'll find out."

Lily poked her head into the room, the followed through by inching herself through the door carefully. Rusty noticed her first, her hair tightly woven into a bun on the top of her head. She wore a pair of pajama pants with coffee mugs on them, a tanktop exposing her arms and chest. Not to mentions the flashes of midrift when she moved a certain way. It was so different from what he was usually seeing her in, but it seemed much more natural to him. "Good timing," he pointed out, looking at the clock.

She acknowledged him, nodding and sliding into an armchair across from the two. Hugging her knees to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her shins and smiled. "The others'll be here soon. Everything's ready."

Danny smiled back at her, panistakingly porud of his daughter for fixing her mistake. He hadn't gotten the chance to tell her yet, but he knew that she knew he was proud just by the look he was tossing her way. "Good," he encouraged, turning on a projector and aiming it at a blank spot on the wall. The floor plans for the first floor of the blank covered the taupe surface, drawings and noted strewn around the edges. "The recon work assigned?"

"Yeah, but..." she tried to finish, but there was a knock on Danny's door. Instead of waiting to hear her out, Danny went to open the door.

One by one, the others filed into the room and took their seats around the image projected onto the wall. Danny waited until everyone was comfortably seated ready to start. "Okay, in the interest of time we're just going to jump in. Shall we?"

Rusty stood, explaining the first part of the plan.

"Gentlemen... and lady... tomorrow starts with Phase Two: Reconnaissance. Lily should've talked to you already about yout assignments tomorrow. We need codes, and we need them badly. So, tell me what you're all going to be doing from here on out?" Rusty pointed Lily first, as if he didn't already know.

"I'm going to be 'working' when my computer all of a sudden just goes crazy."

"You need help messing up the system?" He asked, looking to Livingston.

"Trust me, Rusty, I don't need any help with that. I hardly know what I'm doing as it is. Then, after I get a supervisor's okay, I'm going to make the call to Livingston who's going to be playing the role of a techniition in the bank's chosen company. I've got the uniform for you, by the way. Stop by room later."

"Then I'm going to come in and fix her computer, so I can sinc my laptop with the bank's system so we can keep tabs on Hollings," Livingston continued.

Rusty pointed to Basher next. "I go' the shit end of the stick and 'ave to follow the wanker around all day."

"Bash, it's important," Lily soothed. She had known Basher for as long as she could remember, and knew that he was having trouble with not being able to blow anything up or destroy anything.

"Yeah, yeah."

Virgil, Turk, Frank and Yen were doing general recon. "I want to know everything about anything. I want to know who works when, when they take breaks, when they go to lunch. I want to know who sits where. I want to know their seconds cousin's maiden name. Got it?" Rusty instructed. None of them were happy with their assignment, he knew. It was all still important, though. Even if they were going in after dark and after everyone was gone for the day, Rusty considered it important to know everything. That way, there was less chance for a mistake. Or worse, getting caught.

Linus was last. "And Rusty and me are in for a meeting with Hollings."

Danny looked to Rusty, a question lingering in his gaze. "That's not tomorrow. That's when we find out he's making his move," Rusty explained. "To get the voice recognition."

Danny was satisfied, and instructed Rusty to continue.

"Phase Three: Execution. Here's the first floor. Lily's up first."

Lily stood, walking over to the blueprint on the wall. "The security station is here," she pointed, "There are two armed guards posted each night. Virgil and Turk, we need you guys first. You need to get those guards to open the doors to the parking lot."

Virgil threw his arm over the back of the couch, smiling widely. "What are you thinking?"

Lily shrugged, "Surprise me. I figure a little knockout gas and some of those plastic zip ties should do the trick with handling it. Then I'm going to get through the laser field and disable the alarm."

"How?" Danny asked, wanting to be it all to be precise and perfected.

"With years of yoga, about thirty seconds, and a code which either Basher or Linus and Rusty are going to have to get for me. After that, it's a climb up the elevator shaft for the second part of Phase Three."

"Elevator shaft?' Danny hadn't heard anything about an elevator shaft before.

The color in Lily's eye faded, predicting another of her father's 'disappointment' glances coming on. "There's no other way. The elevator are turned off for the night. Even is we managed to get the power back on, there's a camera inside."

"Can't we cut the signal or something?"

Lily looked to Livingston, having just had this conversation with him moments before the briefing. "The thing is, it would involve too much time to bypass the camera signal and get everything working the way we really wanted. Time is the one thing we don't have," Livingston supported.

Lily curved the corners of her mouth slightly, mentally thanking him for the save. "Plus, Livingston would have to be around to monitor it, and he's going to be in the vault with you guys."

"Well... what about the stairs?"

"No, the stairways have way to many cameras. There's no way we'd be able to go up the stairwell without being caught on video."

He didn't like it, but Danny had to accept it. "Okay, so we climb?"

"Well, when I said climb, I didn't really mean climb. I have some of those wire lifts left over from a previous job I did. They should hold your weight." Lily turned back to the projected image. She examined it momentarily, then decided that she had explained everything she had to explain.

Rusty took center stage again. "Yen's up next. The entire second floor is fitted with pressure sensors, which we can't disable from anywhere other than Hollings office. Luckily, this is where all the bankers handle their buisness, so there are office dividers evenly spaced from the elevator to Hollings' door. Outside the door is another alarm system, which operates the door. Enter the code, get into the office, and disable the pressure sensors."

Yen asked a question, only some of them understanding what he was saying. Rusty answered him, "No, the door is electronically operated so you'll have to get the code."

"Then, once in the office," Rusty narrated as he clicked a button on the projector and the blueprints for the vault popped up, "It's me, Danny, Livingston, and Linus from there."

"Explain how the money is going to be transacted again?" Danny asked, sinking back into his chair a little more. This was all seemingly smooth, and hoped it was going to stay that way.

"Hollings is going to make the transaction from a secured phone line somewhere outside the bank. That, we know for sure because of Lily's snooping skills." Rusty paused, finding the wide smile spreading across Lily's face amusing. "He plans on picking up the money the next day, and wiring it another account wherever he's headed."

"Why can't we just get the money and run? Won't all this bank work leave a paper trail?" Saul asked, crossing his arms. Some nodded their heads, glad he was the one to ask the question because they weren't understanding themselves.

"No, the money doesn't exist yet. Right now, it's all a bunch of numbers and symbols that represent money, but isn't backed by gold or silver or whatever. Once he transferrs the money to his own bank, it becomes real money."

"So how are we going to take it? I'm not sure, but I don't think a bank leaves 300 million in cash hanging around," Linus spoke.

Lily stood again, "Good question, and you're right. I thought of that, and Rusty and I came up with a solution. We set Saul up with an alias, a buisness owner with a fictitious name and a very hush hush buisness. He's going into the bank tomorrow and open an account directly linked to an independant vault on the first floor where Hollings likes to keep all the money for his better paid customers. Saul's going to deposit a million as a starter so no one will get suspicious when 300 million is added on when Livingston transfers the money from Hollings' account to Saul's. After that, when it becomes real money, Saul is going to go back complaining about how the he heard that bank isn't safe to hold all that money in, or how he suspects someone is stealing from him... because word will get out that Hollings is a skimmer... Frank, do you still have that contact at the Times?"

Frank smiled deviantly. "I'll give him a call."

"Great,' Lily praised, turning back to Saul. "Use your creativity. Just make sure you get all the money in cash form because they're going to fight for you to stay in their service. If they can't win you over, they're going to offer to transfer the money somewhere else. That can't happen, because then a paper trail starts. Get that money in cash. It may take a while for a single brankch to pull together, but they'll do it if you're persuasive enough."

"Yeah, I got it." Saul waived her off, thinking that she was doubting him. Lily really wasn't, she was just being thurough.

Danny clapped his hands together, causing everyone's gaze to return to him. "I think that's it for now guys. Tomorrow morning, meet back here at five thirty. Don't be late." He then proceeded to stand, and usher everyone out of the door. Lily and Rusty were the last, and he closed the door on him before they could even think about leaving. "Tell me, exactly how much is this operation going to cost us?"

Lily looked to Rusty, who looked to Danny. "About... five hundred..." Lily roughly estimated.

Danny's eyebrows shot up, a hand covering his mouth. "Five hundred thousand?"

"No, Dad. Five hundred dollars."

If it was possible, his eyebrows arched farther. "You're shitting me, right? Five hundred dollars?"

"There's not really much of an investment here, Danny," Rusty smirked. He had just proved his point earlier - that Lily was not the same type of criminal that they were - and Danny had helped him.

"The only thing that's really going to cost us is some basic callibrations to the wire lifts I have, just to make sure they're safe enough for your weight. Then after that, there's really only a need for a tape recorder, and the ingredients to make this wax coating stuff Livingston was telling me about," Lily agreed.

"Wax coating?"

"For your hands," Rusty chimed, "You coat it on your hands, and it's fine enough to mold to a fingerprint left on a glass or something. Interesting stuff, really."

Lily walked over to her father, pulling on his shoulder so he would bend down. She kissed him on the cheek, told him goodnight, and headed back to her penthouse.

Rusty headed for the door, but Danny stopped him once again. "You two seem to be getting along."

Rusty rolled his neck back. "I just told you my girlfriend troubles, and you're pushing your daughter on me. Smooth, Danny. Real smooth."

"You said yourself that you were having second thoughts. You ever think that maybe it's for a reason?"

"Because you made it a reason," Rusty retorted. Rusty usually valued his talks with Danny. Usually. Then again, he was usually asking Danny for his advice about trouble he was having with his relationship, and not trying to defend it. "Did she ever tell you that she plotted my death? I walked in on her one day practicing her alibi in the mirror. Explain to me how that is something I would want to go back to."

Danny shut the door tightly, hoping that no one would disturb them during their talk. "Did she ever tell you how many times she was planning on killing me? Last year, I remember she was going coat my food with some untraceable drug. Two months ago, she was going to run me over with her car. Then she got more crafty, so she wouldn't get caught. Last month, she was going to knock me unconcious and prop my body in a noose while I was standing on an ice block. She said that way, the ice would melt and it would look like I hanged myself. A couple of days ago, she was going to beat me to death with a shovel. Should I go on?"

"If anything, you convinced me to never get on her bad side again."

"I'm saying, that relationships are complicated. If you didn't fight, and if she wasn't as quirky as she is, the relationship would have gotten boring and it would have ended a long time before it did. The key to a healthy relationship is to realize that the man is always wrong. It's all about her, and you're always wrong."

"Yeah, but,,,:

"Always wrong. And n matter what, you just have to say yes to everything. Even the fights were all about her, I assume. Am I wrong?" He paused, taking in the expression Rusty had on his face. "You still had pictures from when..."

"How'd you...?"

"Lily saw."

"No..."

"In your room..."

Rusty was at a loss for words. He never really knew why he kept those pictures, or why they were the first thing he had packed whenever he was getting ready for a job.

Rusty knew Danny and him were close because they could finish each other's sentences, but he never knew Danny could read his mind. At least not until Danny answered his unvoiced questions with, "It's because she was the one that got away. What girl has ever walked away from you, Rusty? How many girls have you given that chance to? How many girls have you let come as far as Lily had. You didn't like that she had the power in the relationship, so you let her leave."

"Danny..."

"Just hear me out. Look, usually Tess and you are the ones who stop me when I'm not making sense, right? Well I just gave Tess this exact same speech a little while ago and, while it took a little convincing, she agreed with me. As much as she loves Isabel, she agreed with me."

"Why are you doing this, Danny?!" Rusty was starting to get angry. He was taking all his frustration out on his jaw, biting down as hard as he could.

"Because my daughter isn't happy, and she hasn't been happy in a long time. Did you see how she smiled at you when you complimented her? I can't remember the last time I saw her..."

Rusty pushed past him, he was just that fed up. This was none of Danny's business, and he had no right to imply what Rusty understood he was implying. "See you in the morning," he growled, slamming the door behind him.

Danny shook his head. He considered Rusty's frustration steming from his unavailable emotions, but he knew that it was really because he never saw Danny as - as Lily put it - Danny Ocean, matchmaker. To Rusty, he was always the relationship guru, the guy who listened to him when he talked about fights and make ups. Really, Danny just wanted to make up for all the unhappiness he had caused Lily as a child. If pushing her back together with the only man that never really made her genuinely smile. Then again, Lily was probably going to be looking to buy a shovel when she heard that he had talked to Rusty. He would have to live with the consiquences, however painful or life-threatening.

And then still, Lily had made it a habit to remind him that his plans never really worked out the way he imagined. That only left room for more consiquences.