Los Angeles, CA, Present Day
"Girls, I got a question for ya." Etienne said, bouncing into Dani's room one evening in late February. Dani was sprawled on her bed, Rory was stretched out on the floor, leaning against the bed. They both looked up at their friend.
"What is it?" Rory asked, lazily flipping through an old copy of People magazine she found on the desk.
Etienne spun the chair at the desk and straddled it, resting his arms on the back of it, his blond hair falling into his eyes as it had a tendency to do. "What do you two want for your birthday?"
Rory contemplated the question for a few moments, forgetting the magazine. It was five weeks until her birthday, two until Dani's. They had always celebrated the birthdays together, usually sometime in between the two. Usually when Et or their mothers asked them what they wanted, it was easy to find an answer. But this time, Rory had no ideas. She craned her neck and looked at Dani.
"I don't have any ideas, do you Dan?" she asked.
Dani rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling, pillowing her head in her hands. "As a matter of fact, yeah. I don't know if we'll be able to pull it off though."
"What are you t'inking of?" Etienne pondered aloud, spinning in the chair. "We're not exactly rich you know? We can't do anyt'ing too extravagant."
"If our moms help we can." Dani replied. "Guys, what do you say we treat ourselves to a little vacation? We can all chip in the money, so it won't entirely be a birthday present, and we'll ask our moms to chip in some too."
"You mean…go to New Orleans?" Rory asked, her brown eyes widening.
"Yeah. Rory, think about it. You and I have always wanted to go there and meet our brothers. The only thing we know about them is what our mothers have told us, and what Et can remember from when he was a kid. And Et, you haven't seen your brother or any of them in ten years. I think it's high time we took a little trip there." Dani replied.
"That is an incredible idea, Dani!" Rory exclaimed. "You think our moms will go for it?"
"I think they've been waiting for us to come up with this plan since we turned eighteen, Ro. I think they'll be okay with it." Dani commented.
"Can we talk to you for a minute?" Rory asked as she, Dani and Etienne entered the living room. Yvonne muted the television, and she and Nadine looked at the three young adults with curious expressions.
"Of course you can. What is it?" Nadine replied, motioning for them to take a seat. They sat in a row on the couch and then continued.
"We have an idea, but we're going to need your help financially." Dani began. "If, you agree to let us do it, that is."
"What's your idea?" Yvonne asked. She and Nadine exchanged glances. They could already guess what the idea was, and, as Dani had suggested to Rory and Etienne, they had been waiting for it for years.
"We want to go to New Orleans." Rory explained. "All three of us, together. We can pay for part of the expenses, but not all of it. Can we? And will you help us?"
Nadine and Yvonne both sighed. Even though they had been waiting for it, it still blew their minds. "How long would you be going for?" Nadine asked.
"Two weeks, tops." Etienne said. "We have lives here, we don' want to give dat up. But de girls want to meet Claude an' Genard, an' I want to see Theoren 'gain. Not to mention Remy an' Emil."
"We decided a long time ago that if you wanted to go, we would support you and help you in any way we could," Yvonne told them. "That still stands. If you can get the time off work, you can go, we'll take care of the finances."
"You'll take care of the finances?" Dani asked, green eyes wide.
"Yes. Save your money for spending money." Yvonne replied.
"Thanks…" the three young people said in unison. This was much more than they ever could have anticipated. Now all they had to do was get the time off work and they'd be all set to go.
Captain Christopher Garner sat in the plush chair behind his desk and wondered what he had done on that day in a past life to have three of his best people standing before him all asking for the same two weeks off.
Garner was a captain with the LAPD. He was the head of the special investigations unit, or SIU. And even though they were all still in their early twenties, Etienne Marceaux, Victoria Alouette and Danielle Potier were three of the best investigators he had on his force. They had joined the Police Academy in December 1995, just after Etienne's eighteenth birthday, and were assigned to Garner's force six months later. In the years since, they had proven themselves time and again to be exceptional officers and investigators.
Garner sighed. "You all want the same two weeks off, from March 17th to the 31st. Is that correct?"
"Yes, Sir." Rory replied.
"And why are all three of you requesting the same time off, if I may ask?" Garner asked.
"Captain, I have family in New Orleans I haven' seen in ten years." Etienne explained. "Rory an' Dani have family dere dey've never even met. We would like to go dere for a little vacation an' see dem."
"Well, much as I hate to let you three go, even for two weeks, I can't see any reason why you shouldn’t be able to visit your families." Garner told them. "I’m sure we can handle things without you for awhile."
"Thank you, Captain." Dani said with a smile.
"You know, it's going to be awkward for us there." Rory commented two weeks later while she and Dani were packing for their trip.
"I was thinking about that." Dani replied, trying to decide if she had enough pairs of socks packed. "We're cops. Even Etienne is, and he spent the first thirteen years of his life being trained as a thief. It's going to be weird."
"Maybe we shouldn't tell them." Rory suggested. "I mean no harm could come from not telling them what we do for a living, could it?"
"I don’t think so. They're the New Orleans Thieves Guild. We're LAPD investigators. It might be difficult to not tell them, but it's not like we're going there to arrest them. Although we might have to defend them..." Dani said.
"An' if we defend dem, we might lose our jobs if de people here find out." Etienne added, walking in and plopping down on the bed.
The three young people were silent for a few moments after Etienne made that comment, each lost in his or her own thoughts. They each knew that if it came down to it, if they ended up helping the thieves in any way, they would have to choose between returning to Los Angeles and staying in New Orleans. The whole trip might end up being an elaborate game of cops and robbers, only this game would involve the real lives of real people. No toy guns allowed.
New Orleans, LA, Present Day
Tante Mattie Baptiste stood at the window in her kitchen and stared into the backyard. She had been restless for nearly two weeks. Something was going to happen, and soon, but Mattie had no real idea what. She knew it had something to do with the thieves, and her gut instincts told her it was going to effect the lives of some of the thieves very deeply.
Mattie wasn't worried. She trusted the thieves; she cared for them all the way a mother cares for her children. And even though things had been rocky since the unification between the Thieves Guild and their long-time enemies the Assassins Guild, Mattie knew that whatever was going to happen, it would be a good thing, and it would take everyone's minds off the problems with the assassins.
As Mattie stared out her kitchen window, she was hit with a revelation. In her mind's eye, she saw Etienne, who she had always known was still alive…she was the only one to whom Jean-Luc had told the truth about the true fate of the young man. She also saw two young women, whom she correctly guessed to be Victoria Alouette and Danielle Potier. She didn't know why she was seeing visions of the three young people; she had never met the two girls, and she hadn't seen Etienne in ten years.
"Whatever's gon' happen, it involves dem." She mused aloud. "I jus' hope it all works out."