Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
Spoilers: See previous chapters.
Revision Posted: 18-Jul-2009
Chapter Title: The Proposal
It wasn't the fanciest hotel Fann had ever wandered into. She'd briefly worked in several more ornate examples since running away the previous fall. She wasn't sure if it was typical of hotels in the French Quarter but standing in the lobby Fann had the distinct impression that it was a very discrete establishment. The kind of place that went out of its way to protect his guests from the pressures and prying eyes of the outside world.
She could feel the attention of hidden watchers on her as she entered. If asked she wouldn't have been able to say how she knew, but she would bet her limited funds that as soon as she showed up in the entrance someone in a hidden room somewhere in the hotel was checking her out to see if she was a threat to any of their patrons. She shivered slightly at the thought.
It was probably just her imagination but standing on the edges of the lobby, Fann thought she could feel a subdued energy infusing the air and swirling around her. Looking around she could just imagine any number of celebrities casually wandering through the lobby, secure in the knowledge that the paparazzi couldn't get in the door. The atmosphere gave her even less of an indication about what this Amanda could possibly want her for. Anyone who could stay in a place like this probably didn't need anything she had to offer.
She sensed Amanda approaching before she saw her, feeling a slight tingle in her finger tips as if they'd been sleeping. And even then, if she hadn't been looking in her direction she might have missed her completely. In the hours since they'd forcibly met Amanda had changed her hair to a much darker color, giving her a softer, less harsh look. She nodded at Fann and, without saying a word, headed for the entrance, Fann scrambling to follow.
Stepping out of the elevator and giving the blushing bellhop one last wink, Amanda strode casually out into the hotel lobby. It wasn't quite 6pm yet and while she didn't really expect Fann to show up she was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and give her a few minutes to show. Heading towards a soft leather chair in a secluded corner she'd spotted earlier, Amanda made herself comfortable while she waited. She would give her ten minutes after the hour but then dinner called. She might be immortal but no matter how curious she didn't have infinite patience.
The chair gave her an unobstructed view of the entrance and the front desk. While waiting she'd been watching guests checking in with a keen eye. Although she'd agreed years ago to the hotel management's insistence that she not practice her trade on their other patrons, multiple schemes for separating those guests from their valuables were starting to run through her mind, only stopping when she caught a glimpse of her quarry out of the corner of her right eye. Watching her stand hesitantly in the entrance, Amanda was struck again with how familiar the young woman looked. Although physically much younger, with the exception of much darker hair, she was almost identical to someone who'd rescued her from an over-enthusiastic witch hunting mob almost half a millennium before.
Amanda briefly considered the idea that it could be the same person before dismissing it as impossible. Not only had she not appeared to recognize her earlier, this girl wasn't an immortal. It was an unexpected coincidence but however unlikely stranger things had happened to her in the last thousand years. Surreptitiously studying her, she noticed another subtle difference that further confirmed the idea that this wasn't the same person. The unnamed woman who'd rescued her from a painful death before disappearing had moved with an almost ethereal grace, as if she weren't really part of the physical world.
This girl's movements, on the other hand, were very physical and closely resembled the grace of a dangerous animal. Watching her, even when she was standing virtually still was almost hypnotic. There was something fascinating about her presence. Amanda felt like she was watching a small wild cat stalking its prey. She could almost visualize her toying with her prey just for the fun of it.
Shaking her head at the image, Amanda stood up and casually headed in Fann's direction before the girl could change her mind and leave. Amanda smiled at how quickly Fann noticed her approaching in the busy lobby. She wondered if the girl would be interested in assisting with one of the many ventures she had in mind for her stay in the city.
It had been a while since she'd thought of enlisting the help of someone who wasn't immortal in one of her more complex schemes. But something about this girl, and the way she seemed to casually survey her surroundings, was just begging for her to make her a part of her future plans. Not having Duncan around to accuse her of corrupting someone so obviously young and innocent was an added bonus, she thought, a small grin briefly running across her face.
As she approached, Amanda appraised Fann's clothes, looking for clues that would indicate her approachability for her ideas. She couldn't be absolutely sure but Fann appearance just screamed 'runaway' to her. From her clothes to the cut of her hair. She'd certainly seen enough during her long lifetime to notice the small things that separated someone on the run from anyone else. Nodding at her to follow, she briskly headed for the entrance.
Once outside in the sun she stopped and waited for Fann to catch up to her. Giving her a quick smile she addressed her in a quiet voice. "I see you've decided to join me," Amanda said, motioning Fann away from the entrance.
"Yes," Fann said, giving her a slightly confused look, as if she wasn't really sure why she'd decided to show up.
"If you don't mind Chinese, there's a good place just down the street," Amanda suggested.
"Sure. That's okay," Fann assured her.
"Great!" Amanda told her. "We can talk there." As they started walking down the street, Amanda noticed that Fann kept giving her a slightly concerned look. "If you have any questions that can't wait go ahead and ask," She said, giving her a small grin. "I don't make it a habit of biting."
"I was kind of wondering why you'd invited me to dinner," Fann asked as they strode down the sidewalk.
"I have to have a motive? I can't just do it to apologize for running into you this afternoon?" Amanda asked.
Fann shrugged. "You don't seem like the type."
"What type am I?" Amanda asked, stopping abruptly halfway down the block and giving Fann a curious look.
"Rich. Kind of snobby." Tucking her hands into her pockets, Fann gave her half a smile as if she'd spoken in jest.
Amanda laughed, shaking her head at the cheeky answer Fann had given her. Being able to cultivate a certain image was a useful skill in her line of work but normally she didn't get such a blunt assessment of how well it was working. "You need to work on your people watching skills. What gave you those ideas?"
Frowning at her question, Fann looked at her intently for a moment before answering. Feeling like a bug under a microscope, Amanda inexplicably felt the hair on the back of her neck rising in response.
"The rich part is easy to figure out. Your car. Your clothes. That hotel. They all scream 'money'. Lots of it," Fann told her.
"And the snobby part?" Amanda asked, wrinkling her nose in thought. She didn't think she'd said anything in their short acquaintance to give her that impression.
"The way you walk and talk," Fann told her. "And the hotel."
"The hotel?" Amanda echoed, slightly puzzled. She liked that particular hotel and stayed in it every time she was in town.
"It's that kind of place," Fann said, shrugging. "I bet you can't get a room there unless you are related to De Gaulle."
"Charles De Gaulle?" Amanda asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "Do you even know who he was?"
"Yes!" Fann mumbled, blushing. "Some snobby French general. My Gran had a cousin who drove him around during some war. She wasn't impressed the one time she met him."
"Okay. Point taken," Amanda said, laughing. "I'll agree De Gaulle could be snobby. But appearances can be deceiving. I've been staying in that hotel for years. They respect the privacy of their guests."
They continued walking for a few more minutes, Amanda occasionally looking over at her companion but not saying anything, having decided to wait until they were eating.
The entrance to the restaurant was up a short flight of marble steps, just above ground level. When Amanda had said Chinese she'd expected something just a notch up from a traditional take-out. But this was far outside of her normal experience. She'd spent a lot of her time since running away working in eating establishments where they were lucky to meet payroll on a regular basis and knew all of the signs. From the subtle wealth being displayed as they were escorted to their seats Fann guessed that this wasn't one of them.
From the gold and ivory inlay on the ebony colored table, to the delicate chopsticks that graced their table settings, Fann felt distinctly out of place. She didn't think she was badly dressed but her clothes certainly didn't meet the standards set by her surroundings. Surreptitiously looking at the waitress as she waited to take their order, Fann guessed that even the staff were better dressed than she was. And from the looks she was getting from them as they passed, they were apparently thinking the same thing she was.
She stared at the menu in confusion for a minute before it occurred to her why someone would go to a Chinese restaurant in the French Quarter. It listed a strange mixture of traditional Chinese dishes combined with things she just barely recognized from the Cajun and Creole cookbooks she'd run across in the Eerie public library while researching the next stage of her journey. Cooking wasn't something she'd developed beyond the basic skills needed to avoid starving but she hoped to have a chance to try some of them some day.
She frowned at her menu, not quite sure what to order. Even the Chinese entrées had French descriptions that a year of high school French hadn't prepared her for. There wasn't a word of English anywhere on it. She could sense Amanda's amusement even without look across the table at her.
"Would you like me to order for you?" Amanda asked her with a small laugh.
"Okay," Fann agreed grudgingly, resigning herself to Amanda's unknown tastes in food. She tried not to appear too impressed as Amanda ordered, speaking fluently with the waitress in a language that wasn't French or English.
Amanda waited patiently until their food had arrived and they were alone again. Before bringing up what she thought was one of her best ideas in a while, she needed to know if her companion was available. Gesturing with her half full wine glass at the young woman awkwardly attempting to eat with chopsticks, she asked, "What are your plans when you finish school?"
"Plans?" Fann shook her head, giving her a guarded look. "I'm not in school."
"What did your parents think when you quit?" Amanda asked her, more interested in fishing for other information about her dinner companion than the answer to that question.
"Who says I quit?" Fann protested.
Amanda looked at her with an experienced eye. "Since you can't be more than sixteen, you've either quit school or run away from home."
"I'm not sixteen!" Fann protested. "I'm almost eighteen," she told Amanda before blushing in obvious mortification at blurting out her true age to a stranger. "Oops."
"And your parents let you meet strange women for dinner?" Amanda asked in another attempt to get more information. She'd never been a parent but from observing the way MacLeod behaved around children and teenagers he'd helped over the years she was sure that Fann's parents must be worried about her. It wouldn't do her plans any good if someone showed up and dragged Fann home in the middle of a project.
Amanda's suspicions were confirmed when Fann looked down guiltily at her plate.
"Why do you want to know?" Fann asked quietly.
"Answer my question and I might tell you."
Fann looked up from her plate and stared her in the eyes, almost as if in challenge. "My parents are dead."
"No other family?" Amanda asked in what she hoped was a gentle voice. Sympathy for the chaotic lives of mortals was not something she had much practice with.
Fann gave her a suspicious look. Amanda could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she decided what to tell her. "My Gran died last Spring. Gran's friends mean well but I had to get away for a while. I needed some time just to be me. I thought it would be easier to do that on my own, so I left."
Perfect, Amanda thought to herself, suppressing a delighted grin. She was sure there was more to the story than that but it could wait. And she was also sure she could convince Fann to work with her. "Do you plan to finish school?"
"Someday I might," Fann said, frowning at the question. "Why?"
"I run a small business," Amanda told her. "I find things for people. How would you like to come work for me?"
"Why me?" Fann asked warily. Amanda gave her another friendly smile.
"I have several projects coming up that you would be perfect for," Amanda said with a shrug. "I normally work alone but there are times when two people are better than one."
"And?" Fann prompted with a suspicious tone.
"You remind me of someone I owe a favor to," Amanda told her, not quite lying. "She's not around anymore so I can't repay her. It would make me feel better to help you out in her place." She shrugged. "Also, I'm tired of working by myself and you obviously could use the job." She waved a hand at Fann's clothes.
"What else?" Fann seemed to expect a better explanation than that before agreeing to anything so Amanda decided to risk it and tell her.
"Okay..." She looked around to make sure no one was listening to their conversation. "Sometimes I need to get things from people who don't exactly want to give them to me. They are less likely to be suspicious if someone your age were with me." She could tell Fann still didn't quite get it.
"Are we talking about a real job? Or just a temporary thing?" Fann frowned at her again.
"If it works out it doesn't have to be temporary," Amanda told her. She didn't want to promise any more than that. Not everyone had the inclination or skill to succeed in her current profession.
"What does it pay," Fann asked reluctantly, "and is it dangerous?"
"Well, since you would be just starting out I could pay for the basics like food, clothes, and necessary equipment," Amanda admitted. "But it's mostly commission based. And it isn't dangerous most of the time"
"Most of the time?" Echoing Amanda's comment, Fann's voice squeaked.
"Some people object to giving me their things." Leaning back in her chair, wine glass in hand, Amanda winked at Fann. "It can be quite exciting at times." From her expression, Amanda could see the exact moment when Fann understood what Amanda was telling her.
Fann choked on her tea when she tried to speak. "You're a thief? You... you... steal things?"
Amanda didn't think her eyes could open any wider. She grimaced and tried to clarify things. "That's such a crude way to describe it. I'm a specialist. We aren't talking about breaking windows to steal televisions during a riot. There are probably less than seven people in the world that even come close to me in skill." Modesty really wasn't something she wasted much time on, though if pressed she would have to admit to exaggerating just a little. But Fann wouldn't know that.
"And you want me to work with you?" Fann muttered in apparent surprise.
"Sure! Why not. I think you would be perfect for it," Amanda said, smiling at her. "It'll be fun. I'll teach you everything you need to know."
"I need to think about it," Fann told her.
"Okay." She didn't attempt to sway her. Amanda wasn't sure why anyone would not want to join her but she could wait a day or two for her to think about it. "I'm in town until Friday. Once I'm gone..." she paused. "...so is the offer." She motioned at the food remaining on the table. "Why don't you eat up. Aren't teenagers always hungry?"
Fann blushed but reached for one of the entrees and helped herself.
Later that night, alone again, Fann wandered aimlessly around New Orleans, thinking about Amanda's offer. Except for running away and constantly lying about her age, she hadn't done anything that she thought was really illegal. She didn't count all the times she'd been paid under the table while working at some shop or diner. Avoiding taxes was a well known American past-time where she was from. And Amanda hadn't given her the impression that people would throw parades in their honor for a job well-done. She could really use her Gran's advice right now. She wasn't sure what to do.
Fann's restlessness took her down to the docks just before dawn. The oppressive atmosphere she'd felt everywhere seemed to be lighter near the water. The tangy smell of the large body of salt water, mixed with the musty odor of rotting seaweed, wasn't totally unfamiliar to the Maine native. Although she hadn't grown up on the ocean, her Gran had taken her beach combing every summer when she was still alive to gather shells for one of her many art projects. Standing at the edge of the water and breathing deeply, Fann looked out at the collection of rusty ships lining the nearby piers.
For the first time in months Fann really thought about what her Gran would have had to say about her trip. Her Gran had travelled a lot during her youth, though by the time Fann was living with her all she had were her memories. She'd told Fann stories to amuse her almost nightly the first few year she'd lived with her. It had given her something else to think about after her parents had disappeared. Fann had avidly absorbed her Gran's tales and had often imagined herself traveling to the exotic places she heard so much about.
She would like to think that her Gran would have agreed with her actions so far. She wasn't too sure that the idea that she was seriously considering spending time in the company of someone like Amanda would have met with her complete approval though.
Chapter Notes:
* No, this is not anything femslashy... Amanda is not trying to 'pick her up'! I have no plans to change the whole Amanda & MacLeod thing.
* Fann is pronounced "Fawn" - It's Irish. It's also the name of one of the mythical Sidhe queens.