Ocean's 8 1/2

Trust

The three women took a deep breath and walked outside where they found the two men sitting by the fire pit which had a large fire raging in it. They sat together facing the two men. A small outdoor coffee separated them from the men. Deb linked her arm with Lou's and sat extremely close to her. Lou placed her hand on Deb's upper thigh trying to get the message to Linus that Deb was hers. Tammy sat beside Deb with her leg pressed against the brunette's. They all were waiting for whatever Linus had to say, but Linus was perfectly content sitting in silence, hidden by the darkness which masked a devilish smile. His eyes were the only thing lit up by the fire and they were fixated on Deb. 

After a few minutes, Lou finally got fed up at Linus looking at her fiancee like she was a meal and broke the silence. "Well what is it?" Lou snapped. 

Linus cleared his throat and pulled 5 postcards out of his jacket pocket. He placed them on the table one by one.  The first one was from Zion National Park with only Fe + O2 written on it besides Linus's address. The second was a postcard from Vegas with a battery drawn on it. The third was a Harley Davidson postcard from Oklahoma with a drawing of the state California and the fourth was a postcard from Disneyland with a drawing of an unfinished tic tac toe game. Finally, the fifth postcard from a National Park in Texas with a mockingbird on it and a small heart draw on the back and a compass pointing West. 

Each of the intended receivers picked up their perspective postcards. Deb could feel her heart beating on her rib cage trying to escape. Danny was alive. She couldn't believe it. Rusty's heart also pounded but he also could feel steam coming out of his ears. How could Danny pick Linus out of all of them to give the messages too? Tammy had a tornado of emotions swirling in her chest as she traced the drawing of the game with her finger. While she loved Danny and getting a taste of the game again, she wasn't ready to be flung back into it. Lou's heart sank as she saw the drawing of California. She was so afraid this meant she wouldn't get this dream with Deb. They had been so close, but now with Danny back in the picture, she knew Deb would lose sight of the future and focus on the present.

Tammy placed the postcard back on the table and asked: "what does this tell us Linus?"

"Well, he's alive and he needs all us to help him," Linus replied.

"Okay but we have no idea where he is. He's been in 5 different states? How do we even know he needs our help?" Tammy asked again. She wasn't going to get dragged into this unless she had to. She wanted to make sure this wasn't some sort of mistake or just a friendly "hi guys I'm alive".

"Come on Tam, why would he do this if he didn't need help? If he was just checking up, he would have shown up here," Deb snapped.

"I'm sorry, but I can't just take Linus's word for this. I have 4 kids I have to think about," Tammy bit back. She had not realized she had said 4 until Lou gave her a puzzled look. She gave Lou a look and then proceeded, "I love Danny, you know I do Deb, but I can't just throw myself into some wild goose chase."

"Okay but why would he have a reason to lie? Come on Tammy. There are only 3 people in the world who know what that drawing on her postcard means and you and me are sitting right here," Deb begged.

"Thanks guys I'm right here," Linus muttered.

"Shut up. I don't trust you either," Lou growled. Linus glared and then looked at Rusty who shrugged at him in agreement with Lou.

"They have a point Linus. I mean, none of us knew what kind of thing he was working on. I was the last person to see him before he left," Rusty added. He was skeptical about the notes too. He didn't believe, or well, he didn't want to believe Danny would leave it up to Linus. He was Danny's right-hand man, not Linus.