Playing Your Hand (Ocean’s Eleven, Rusty/Linus)

Linus Caldwell stared at the door in front of him, white with blue trim, all perfectly normal. He hesitated, looking at the door and then back at his feet, reluctant to disturb the happy couple inside. He told himself he should turn around and go back. It was late and they wouldn’t want to be bothered with his problems. It had been stupid to fly all the way out here like this, just on a whim. Okay, so it was more than just a whim. He was going to go mad if he didn’t get someone to help him, and Danny Ocean was the only one he could think of that could help.

“Linus.” The boy in question jumped, looking up guiltily at Danny. He hadn’t heard the door open but there Danny was, leaning against the doorframe with that confident, cocky smile of his. Danny extended a hand in greeting and Linus took it slowly, still nervous and unsure and half-convinced he was intruding somehow. From further in the house he heard Tess call something he couldn’t quite make out. Danny shouted a response back, “It’s Linus.”

Then there was a hand on his arm pulling him inside. “Why don’t you come inside? You don’t look too well. Is everything alright?”

That was a loaded question. Linus opened his mouth but he really had no idea where to start, what to say. Just then Tess bustled in, sweeping him into a hug and taking away his chance to answer for the moment.

“Linus, it’s good to see you again.” They’d only met once before, when the couple had been passing through Chicago and Danny had wanted to stop in and visit, but apparently Danny had been talking him up because Tess greeted him like an old friend. As she pulled back from the hug her face scrunched up and she took Linus’ head in her hands. “Are you alright? You look sick.”

He sighed. Yeah, he probably didn’t look all that great considering how little sleep he’d been getting recently. “I’m fine, though that’s kind of why I came here to see you.”