The Cowan Job
Chapter 2 – The More Things Change
Disclaimer: Whilst I do plan on adding the odd original character, a vast majority of what is here belongs to 'Ocean's 11/12' and 'The Italian Job'.
Thank you so much Holly, PrInCeSsFBi and He whom must not be named for reviewing
Stella smiled softly as she looked down at the photo in her hand. It was of the three of them on her 15th birthday, they had wanted to just go to a movie but Annie insisted on throwing her a party, technically though it was joint party but Linus had managed to keep up his long standing tradition of keeping all attention off himself.
The photograph was taken just after Claire had fallen (or possibly been pushed) into the pool, her hair was sticking to her face as the pink dye they had jokingly put in earlier soaked into her shirt.
Stella placed the frame on the shelf turning back to the box. She had been thinking about Claire a lot lately, but the part of her that had paid attention in psychology insisted she was simply projecting her feelings about Linus' position to that of the death she had come to terms with, in an attempt to distract herself. Of course that thought was also pushed from her hand to remind herself that Linus wasn't dead. I had been 16 months since L.A. and there had been no change.
She felt as though everything should have stopped.
It was odd trying to adjust to life without the Caldwell's, they were her family. Her mother died when she was young and her father spent a long time in jail, so she had lived with them.
Annie was her mother just as much as she was Linus', and even when her father was with them they had continued to do regular mother-daughter things. Bobby was like a loving uncle who could step in and out of the role of surrogate father so seamlessly there were times she had been surprised that nothing ever got awkward. And then Linus was her best friend, her brother. He had been the one constant in her life and she the one in his. Linus had been with her before Claire, and after Claire he was the only person she could speak to. For almost six month after their friend's death she had said almost nothing to anybody but him.
For a long time Stella had believes that loosing Claire was the worst it could get, now it seemed to pale in comparison to the past 18 months.
Charlie and her father had done what they could. At first it had just felt clingy, but she later realised that in a lot of ways her dad had lost even more then she had. Whilst she still had Charlie and other friends from school to see, her father had nobody. After her mother's death the Caldwell's became as much his family as hers. Her father and Bobby had been good friends a long time before either of them married, and chances were that even if her mother hadn't passed so early Linus and she probably still would have grown up together.
Linus was going to wake up, she never doubted that. It had been over a year since Charlie had asked her to move out of Chicago and live with him in Boston, however she had only just agreed. Her father convinced her that it was for the best, he was working more now and it was obvious he felt better knowing that someone was with her. John had still not completely forgiven Charlie for lying to him for so long, but he had eventually admitted that Charlie was a good man and one of the few that John deemed good enough to be trusted. Perhaps not completely with her, but he was better than most.
In a lot of ways leaving Chicago wasn't as hard as it should have been. Leaving Linus was and always would have been a hard thing to do. But missing him was no longer a new emotion to her, she had done nothing but miss him for the past 18 months. Whilst she did feel guilty that she could no longer see him every Saturday, on some level she knew that her visits only made herself feel better. Lenny didn't know she was there, the doctor's had told her as much many times. Anyway there were others, her father still lived in Chicago so should anything urgent happen he could take care of it, and some friends that two of them had bothered staying in touch with were happy to drop by on occasion just to be certain that everything was well in the hospital.
Stella's head popped up -from the ornament she was trying to arrange just so on the bookshelf- as she heard the phone ring. Taking a quick sweep of the room she discovered that at least three boxes would need to be moved for her to get to the phone, deciding that she would never get there in time Stella sighed and ignored the phone. She picked up her pace pushing book and pictures onto the shelf haphazardly simply trying to empty the boxes. She wanted to finish this room today, and leaving phones unanswered had never sat well with her. She finished the box quickly cleared herself a path to the phone, and was half way through the next box when the phone rang again. Afraid that it might be the same person calling she abandoned her box and manoeuvred her way quickly out of the room.
"East would be faster," John argued
"Harder to plan though," Rusty responded, John had to nod in agreement, if anything went wrong on the east exit they were in trouble.
"So we'll"
"Have to."
Danny gave a quick nod "Sounds good."
John looked between the two of them waiting for someone to explain whatever had taken place. "We're taking the south then?"
Danny looked up as if only just noticing that John was there. "Yes, sorry about that." It was not often he and Rusty had included anyone else in the planning of a job. Usually when they worked someone as experienced as John the planning was done before either they were invited, or they invited the other thief.
Livingston called Rusty across the room to where he was sitting with his laptop.
John's eyes never left the blueprints. Danny noted the exhaustion around his eyes which he knew had not been caused by the job. Whilst John was an excellent actor it was easy to see how the past year had affected him, he was not the all but carefree person Danny had once been so used to working with. Glancing around the room Danny rediscovered what he already knew they were the only four there, the rest of the team (who really weren't good enough to be on a job like this) had gone for dinner hours ago and not yet returned. "How is he?" Danny asked quietly.
John did not even pretend to not understand who the younger man was talking about. "Not good," he answered honestly, "Condition hasn't changed," seeing Danny's obviously confused look, "The doctor's say that there is an excellent chance he'll go brain dead soon, then they have to unplug him." Had he not been so well trained in concealing his emotions, Danny's breath would have caught in his throat. "Nothing's certain," John assured him "And they still need to pass everything by Stella." He let out a small laugh obviously having remembered an incident that Danny felt better not to pry into.
"How is Stella?" He asked instead.
"Fine, she's moved to Boston, and of course the wedding's next week, you and Tess are coming coming aren't you?"
"Yes," Danny nodded, he had completely forgotten about the wedding in planning the job "No chance she'll postpone again?" He was almost hopeful.
This time John really did laugh, "No, Bella would probably rip her apart if she did." Danny smiled remembering the story John had told him concerning his daughter's new mother-in-law. "We'll be long done by then though." John assured him obviously having misread Danny reluctance to attend. It was obvious that inviting himself along with most of the Vegas team had been John or Charlie's idea. Stella, whilst never being outright about it, clearly blamed them for what had happened to her friend, and Danny could not blame her. Stella would probably have been more than happy to postpone the wedding for however long it took Linus to show a change. Danny believed that if her friend couldn't be there, than having the ten of them to remind her of why that was, would not be her ideal day. But Tess wanted to go, and John insisted on it, so as it stood he was attending.
"Hey," Danny and John turned to Rusty, "We have a problem."
AN: Please Review! I'd really like to know what you think.
Elle-05