Ocean's 8 1/2

Blue's Clues

Once she had circled the block she came back inside to find the other women looking over the papers that were in the box. They had spread them all over the new dining table and clearly, none of it made sense to them. Debbie walked around the table and examined each artifact carefully. One was a blueprint of what looked like to be one building. Debbie shook her head as she realized it was actually 3 buildings, the Bellagio, Mirage, and MGM Grand all stitched together as one. It was clear to her that this was his way of saying it was Benedict. The second was an article about Borzois and their grooming habits. Debbie rolled her eyes. She didn't hate dogs but she hated those dogs Claude had. The next paper was an article about the Met's new exhibit for this year, Camp: Notes on Fashion. Lou had sort of suspected that if Danny was alive, he'd know that they pulled off the job at the Met. She assumed that Debbie told her brother about it way before it was a successful plan. The next two things though didn't make sense to Debbie either, at least not yet.

After pining for a few moments over the pieces that lead to more questions than answers Debbie said, "Why don't you both get some sleep? It's already 3 am."

Tess looked down at her watch and then over to DJ who was passed out on the floor sucking on the blue dog's ear. She laughed to herself and smiled. He was safe and his father was alive. For a moment she forgot that her husband was on the run and that people were after her. And that was one of the greatest feelings.

"Alright, the guest room is partly set up downstairs. It's mainly the bathroom that's not stocked, however, every you need is in the closet across the hall," Tess said softly as she picked up her sleeping boy and his new toy. They walked down the hall in the opposite direction and went into her room. Lou looked over at Debbie with a puzzled look. She was tired, for sure, but she didn't understand why Debbie didn't want her help in figuring out the rest of the clues. They always worked better.

"Are you sure you don't want my help?" Lou asked.

"I'm not going to study anymore of it tonight, but I do need to just be alone for a minute," Debbie smiled reassuringly. Lou raised her eyebrow, not truly believing the words that came out of the brunette's mouth but she also was too tired to fight it.

"Okay, I'll leave you to it then," Lou leaned over and kissed her lover's forehead and then went off down into the guest room. Debbie walked into Tess's kitchen and got herself a bowl to make herself some cereal. She opened Tess's pantry and to no surprise, the only cereal here was Frosted Flakes. She and Danny never failed to have Frosted Flakes with the grandparents every Sunday after church. She poured herself a bowl about half full and then poured herself a bit of oat milk to go with it. Tess was trying to stay away from dairy so all she had was oat milk or soy.

Deb then sat at the table and tried to eat without looking at the papers. She just wanted a moment to herself to try and collect her thoughts. She knew this isn't what anyone wanted. They had just settled into their new lives here and everything had been going great. Lou was in the process of signing papers to lease a new place for her night club and she had just applied to several art galleries. They even talked about when they wanted to impregnate her. Constance kept telling them they needed to time it perfectly because they didn't want kids who were Virgos, early Sagittarius, or Capricorns. Deb and Lou got the concept of Astrology but didn't buy into everything Constance and Amita said. Deb laughed a little to herself as she thought of those two. She loved them both dearly and didn't want them caught up in whatever mess Danny was going to drag them down. Especially if they didn't need to, however, she could see herself needing Constance's fast hands for something or Amita's help with that Tanzanite. They still had no leads with that stone. She then thought of Rose and Daphne. Their careers were blasting off at a million miles a minute. Daphne was not only acting but she signed a multi-movie franchise directing deal. Rose was being contracted out in New York as well as LA for fashion shows. She was flying every other week to one or the other. It was wearing down on her and her relationship with Daphne. Debbie couldn't ask them to put their life's work on hold for her and her brother. The only thing that worried Debbie was now that Claude was free, would he go after Daphne because he had suspected her? She had been his date to the event that got him in trouble and she was the only one there the night before the police raid. She also had been brazen in her attempt to get a stab at him by bumping into him at the drink refill station. Tammy and Nine were another story, however. They were intertwined with this whole thing as Danny intentionally wrapped Tammy into his plan. While Nine didn't have to be involved, she wasn't going to let anything happen to her fiance and Deb knew her skills were invaluable.