Chapter 1: What Dreams May Come

When I first got the E-mail about a Pretender convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, I hurriedly messaged Jacs quickly, this was going to be the opportunity of a lifetime and I just knew that she would jumping off the edge of her seat to know that her hero Michael T. Weiss was going to be there in person signing autographs and meeting fans. “Jacs” I type into the messenger screen “You are going to flip when I tell you about this. Hold on let’s voice chat over AOL Buddy.”

“Arls, what is going on?” I answered when she finally got on line on Buddy. I know it was only a short wait, but it seemed longer. The time difference really sucks when you are trying to communicate with people on the wrong side of the world.

“Check this out Jacs” I begin “There is going to be a Pretender convention in Vegas in a couple weeks, And Michael T. Weiss is going to be there...and because I entered a drawing at the last convention I went too...shit...well I won two free tickets to any convention they put on.. So buddy are you up for a flight to Las Vegas?”

“Arls!!!” I practically screamed. “You are kidding me right. Oh my god!” I was so excited I could barely believe it. “When?” I am typing furiously, not really making very much sense at all, getting all of my letters mixed up in my eagerness. The connection is not good because I went over my hated download limit yet again.

”Two freaking weeks” I almost yell with excitement “Can you believe this shit, it’s awesome.”

“Two weeks?” I had to get the money from somewhere, and fast. I had some saved up, but not enough. “Arls, I can’t get that kind of money in two weeks” I moaned. It was just my luck to miss this kind of opportunity. It had to be at least two grand for the airfare and I would need a visa and spending money of course. I quickly did some sums in my head and knew that I was way to short and my poor credit card had been abused very badly on eBay this month so I couldn’t even use that.

”There has to be a way, there’s just got to be” I say frustrated until my younger brother Wyat walked through the door, he had just turned 18 years old and received his inheritance and it totaled up to be about 35 thousand easy, I talk for a bit with my little brother, who Jacs recently nicknamed Lil’ Roo due to his unhealthy obsession with kangaroos. He had even gone so far to search for a map with the ratio of people to Roos in Australia. I come back on and say “Ohh Jacs, tell you what Lil’ Roo here just said he can loan us the money to go, hell I can wire you the money right now and you can hop a plane to Reno Nevada, we have some planning to do. Can you get the time off work?” I add sounding hopeful.

“Screw work, but Arls, I can’t take Wyat’s money. I have some Tim-money still owed; I will just have to swallow my pride and go ask him for it. I just have to get there. This is going to be so good.”

”Hell yeah, it’s going to be good” I add “But until you get the Tim-money, let me at least send you a plane ticket, we have ...”Then I laugh “Lots to plan out in the next two weeks.”

I felt really bad taking money from her brother, but I knew I would pay it back. “Okay, but I am going to pay you back, I swear it, even if I have to work every dodgy job I can find. Ohh Arls, this is going to just be unreal.”

”Hell yeah, okay expect the ticket coming soon, hell I will order it now” I say tapping on the keyboard and bringing up the convention web page, I send her the link and say “Check this out, here’s the itinerary for the convention.”

I waited impatiently for the link to open, my stomach all a flutter. I could hear her banging away on the keyboard and it all seemed so unreal. Of course I knew about the convention, there wasn’t a Pretender fan on the net that didn’t. I was always insanely jealous of the Americans, never thinking I would manage to get over there. Last year when Arls had told me all about it, I was green with envy, but happy that she had got to go. The link took forever to open but it finally did. I scrolled through it very quickly “Oh Arls, this is going to be so good. I can’t wait. It says here you can get a photo taken with him and get autographs and then there is a Q & A.” I could barely contain my excitement. I skimmed through it quickly; not really reading it at all, my main concern was Jarod.

”And...” I begin slowly I was saving the best part for last “Guess what else these tickets are good for?”

“What?” I say very slowly, I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was about to drop some kind of bombshell. Our damn connection was not very good and she was fading in and out. Damn the pond, I thought to myself. “Come on Arls, what is it?” I couldn’t even begin to imagine what more the tickets could contain.

”If you scroll down the page a bit....well, just check out the last part, remember last year when I said I got to go to a special dinner with the stars...drinks, food all that jazz....” I go quiet for a moment and just let her read. “You and I are going to get to go to one of those events with the stars…with your Michael.”

“Arls!!!! You are kidding me right?!” I practically squeal into the headset and in my excitement, pulling the broken Ethernet cable out of the comp, losing my connection. “Shit shit shit” I curse, fumbling for the lead to plug back in. “Come on connect.” I tell the screen as I wait for the connection to re-establish. I’ve been telling myself for weeks to buy a new cable.

”Shit damn Grozit!” I growl to myself when I lose her voice “Fuck it, I have long distance I am gonna ring you up Jacs hold on” I call her on the telephone and after a moment she picks up still squealing with excitement “Now then, when can you be packed and ready to go?”

“Arls, I got my connection back right now. As soon as possible, we got planning to do, and we need to do a marathon to get in the mood, is Donovan going to be there too?” I asked, knowing that she loved Kyle. Would never understand how she could think Kyle was better than Jarod, but that was okay by me. Just meant more Jarod for me. I had been too excited to read the itinerary properly.

I just giggle; Jeffrey Donovan was one of my favorite actors of all time. “Oh yeah he’ll be there, don’t think I could pass up meeting him do you?” I sigh with happy contentment at the mere thought of actually meeting him in person “He’s gonna be at the dinner with Weiss as well” I say as I start looking up more crap on the net and then tell her “I just made us reservations at the Las Vegas Hilton, shit Jacs this is gonna rock”

“It is, my god, I can’t wait. Let me hang up and we can Buddy on mic again, this time I won’t pull the cord out” It was costing too much money on the phone. While we waited for the connection again, I was typing furiously. This was going to be incredible.

”Ohh Jacs bring along all your Pretender DVDs” I say when Buddy comes back on line “When we get to my place we can pull an all nighter, If you can catch a flight out tomorrow I’ll pick ya up at the airport in Reno.”

“That is a done deal” I tell her, my mind going at a hundred miles an hour. “I will burn them all for you so that you can toss all those crappy copies of yours. We start with all our fave eps. I got dibs on Red Rock” I tell her, knowing her choice will be Dragon House before she even says it.

I laugh and say “Agreed, damn I love the net, just bought you an airline ticket online, check your e-mail, but your flight leaves at 4 AM tomorrow morning your time, god please tell me you got your passport fixed up?”

“It’s good to go until Feb. Just got a notice saying it was running out, but it’s all good....ho...Email coming through.” I tell her as my comp beeps at me to tell me an email has arrived.” I open my mail to see confirmation of the ticket purchase. “Holy shit Arls!” I exclaim. “We really are going to do this.” I have been talking about going to a convention for years, and now it was finally going to happen.

”Hell yeah, I hate the gay ass msn messenger and the shit site and that wanker Steve, but gotta love it as well cus I got to meet you” I am still giggling “I am gonna borrow my brother’s dodgy truck and I’ll be waiting for you at the airport terminal when you get in”

MSN messenger had been acting up for weeks, ever since the three minute maintenance upgrades that took six hours. We had downloaded every damn IM program we could find to replace the faulty MSN and finally settled on Buddy, which worked intermittently. I had to admit, I did not look at the shit site anymore, my first Internet experience that had started out very good, but turned very sour in the end. But I had met Arls through that group, so it was all worthwhile. It was about 4 in the morning here, but I knew I wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight. I had never pulled so many all-nighters since I had discovered the net, but it was all worth it. I printed out the ticket receipt.

I feel like I am about to burst from all the excitement “You best get to packing Jacs, cus we are finally going to get to meet each other in person yey!!” Now I am squealing again “I’ll let you get ready and I’ll see you soon, nighters from the USA Jacs”

“Byers, you be good, and I will be on the plane in less than 24 hours.” I had been talking to Arls for just under a year, practically everyday, but it was going to be very weird finally meeting her. I was quite nervous really, but that was completely overshadowed by excitement. I finally turned the computer off and started to think about everything I would need to do. I had only a day to prepare, and would probably crash big time this afternoon. I had lessons to cancel and things to pack, DVDs to burn.

I shut down the computer but pace the room nervously, my brothers, endearingly called “The Mob of Roo’s” are wondering why I can’t wipe the grin off my face. I sputter out as best I can that Jacs and I were finally gonna meet and that we were going to be heading to Las Vegas for a Pretender convention. I finally try to get some sleep but all I can think about is the convention and meeting Jacs, the night seems to last forever as I toss and turn restlessly in my bed, but soon the morning sun wakes me up.

I get everything packed in record time and ring the airlines to confirm the ticket. It is winter over there now, I remind myself and it will be great to get away from this infernal heat. Not having slept yet, I duck down to the shopping centre to buy some stupid Aussie things. I have always found it ironic, that the best place to go to for Aussie memorabilia is the dodgy Chinese stores. There is something inherently wrong about buying a boomerang that has ‘Made in China’ printed in tiny letters on the back. But I find myself buying little stuffed koalas and kangaroos for the Americans. Wyat, Arls little brother has recently become obsessed with the Australian outback and kangaroos. I buy everything I can find, hoping that her brothers will enjoy them. I make a mental not to myself that I must disabuse the Americans of the notion that we all have Roo’s and dingoes running wild in our backyards and clarify, once and for all, that Australians DO NOT throw shrimp on the barbi. We call them prawns.

Chapter 2- Way to go Tim-Money

I start cleaning my house sending the mob of Roos back to their own house and thank heavens my b/f is away on training in southern California for the next few months, I had the house all to myself save for my bitchy pit bull who was constantly running across the newly mopped floors. I check the clock again Jacs should be on her way now, I call my brother Jess and commandeer his dodgy truck for the day.

I get over the excitement of the flight by the third hour, and try to get some sleep. I know I won’t be getting very much once I get there. It is still two weeks before the convention, so that will give us a chance to get to know each other. I doubt I will get much sight seeing done, and really the only sights I want to see are going to be at the convention.

At last I get on the road and step on the gas anxious to get to the airport, thank heavens it’s not raining, because there’s quite a leak from the truck’s dodgy sunroof. At last I pull into the airport terminal and park, rush inside and stand at the gates. I just can’t sit still though and pace back and forth as I wait.

The flight finally arrives and I am anxious to get off of this flying tin can. It is a long time to spend in a little tiny cramped space. The progression through customs is agonizingly slow. Security was very tight now and I got more than a few strange looks from the customs official at my assorted stuffed animals. “Gifts” I mutter, just wanting to get through this quickly. He grunted at me and finally cleared me, having decided that I wasn’t a mad bomber after all.

I giggle as I noticed Jacs come strolling down the walkway, arms laden with luggage; I am a brat and hold up a cardboard sign that reads “Welcome Kracker Jacs”

When I see the sign, I burst out laughing. “Evek you bastard” I scream out and push my way forward through the crowd.

”Madred!!” I squeal, saying the name of one of her Cardassian characters and run towards her dropping the sign, I give her a big hug and even cry a bit because I am so damn happy to finally meet her.

We had been writing together on various stories all year, but I knew that Evek had been her favorite character. We had had so much fun as the evil, but dignified, Cardassians. I was hoping we would have time to visit the Star Trek Experience while we were in Vegas too. When Arls gets to me, I drop my bags and hug her, laughing and crying at the same time, still hardly believing that it was her.

”Wow, damn you are really here” I say with sniffles “The Glorious Guls are together at last, C’mon lets get out of this airport” We start walking past a few slot machines and I give her a grin “Care to try your luck before we hit the road?”

I wasn’t much of a gambler and I had no U.S money, not having had a chance to change any yet. “I have to find somewhere to change this” I turned to her. “I finally got all of my Tim-money back, every cent.”

”Gotta love the Tim-money” I laugh, we had been joking about Tim-money for months it seemed, Tim was Jacs’ ex-boyfriend and he had owed her money for quite some time but finally he had paid up in full. “There’s a cashier over there, they can fix up the Tim Money for ya” We head over to the Cashier and soon Jacs has a handful of the American version of Tim-Money.

“This is the last of it” I tell her as we lug all my gear over there. I hand over all of my money to buy some US dollars, appalled at the exchange rate, but that was how things were.

”This one over here is a good game” I say as we check out the dollar Wheel of Fortune machine “It’s got a progressive jackpot worth 98 thousand dollars and some change if you line up all three of the wheel of fortune symbols” Jacs and I hover about the machine for a moment and I pull out a 20 dollar bill and slide it into one of the machines “Crap I totally got shafted” I laugh as I lose the 20 credits a little too quickly “Maybe you’ll have beginner’s luck”

I had no idea what I was doing, but it was Reno after all, so as they say, when in Rome.....I pull out one of my recently acquired $20 notes and slipped it in, doing the same thing that Arls had done. I knew she used to work at a casino, so was happy to follow her lead.

I watch as the machine sucked down the Tim money until there was only 3 credits remaining, “One spin left Jacs” I say “Close your eyes and pull the handle” I say crossing my fingers. I shut my eyes tightly as Jacs gets ready to pull back the lever one final time.

I do as she says, feeling faintly ridiculous, but it was money I never had expected to get back, so I figure what the hell and close my eyes and pull the handle.

I hold my breath and wait with my eyes closed, then suddenly there is this loud ringing sound and these bells start going off and we hear the person next to us gasp loudly, I feel it’s now safe to peek so I open one eye and look back at the machine...what I see almost makes me faint “Holy Fuck Jacs!” I scream.

“What?” I ask in alarm, opening my eyes and looking around, wondering what the hell was happening. In my imagination I imagined some kind of gang fight or something. The place was going crazy and people were gaping at me. “Shit Arls, what is going on?”

”Jacs” I say my voice squealing in excitement “You fucking just won the jackpot and not just any jackpot...you won the lot of it hun...I’m talking 98 thousand dollars!...way to go TIM MONEY”

I look at her in shock. Finally when I have enough wits to speak I gasp out “You are bullshitting me right?” I could see that I had won, but when you win on these things, you are lucky to get a couple of bucks back.

As soon as Jacs said anything the floor attendant approached her and said happily “Congratulations, you just won the progressive jackpot...$98,425.00” I glance over at Jacs who still wasn’t sure this was real or not. I hug her tightly “You are one lucky bitch” I laugh happy for her, she had been through a lot of shit over the last year and it was about time something great happened for her.

“What?” I ask him stupidly, still not able to believe it. I never win anything. But as the realization starts to sink in, I can feel the stupid grin creeping over my face. “Arls? I finally escape from the hug “Do you know what this means?”

”What’s that?” I ask still with an insanely stupid grin on my face.

“We can go first class all the way. Holy shit, nothing but the best” my hands are shaking, and I am feeling like I am in some kind of weird dream. The manager escorts us over to the office and we sit down, gladly taking a drink from him. As I sit down I am still smiling like an idiot.

”Oh shit yeah” I say still in shock, just as Jacs tried to relax and take a sip of her drink, a group of onlookers started crowding around her, one guy with a British accent and stupid hot dog pants asks her “Can uhhh... can I have some of that Tim money?” I look back at the creep and say “Shove off wanker, leave her alone” We then notice that the casino manager has just poured us both two glasses of Cristal Champagne, I toast her and say “To the best buddy ever”

“To connecting with my buddy” I toast back handing her 25 dollars. Everything seems so unreal, but now I can pay back the air fare and we can do the trip in style. “Arls, this whole week, the whole lot of it, is going to be on me. Now take the 25 bucks and I don’t want to hear about Kanar or orange jumpsuits again” I grin at her. The Great Kanar swindle of 25 bars of latinum was something she was never going to let me live down.

I give her a triumphant look. “I knew I would finagle my way out of that orange jumpsuit.” There is nothing quite as sweet as a long fought-for victory. We had been arguing over the color of that jumpsuit for months. She had even gone so far as to doctor a picture of Kyle from when he was back in the Centre so it looked like he was in orange. She was never going to forgive me for the Kanar Swindle.

Later after the manager had her fill out all the paperwork and everything is settled, he hands her 25 thousand dollars in cash and a cashier’s check for the rest. “Let’s get out of here Jacs” I say as we push our way though the crowd and head for the exit.

I follow Arls, half stunned and buzzing from the drink. I have a wad of cash tucked away in my bag and a check in my wallet. Security guards follow us out to the car to make sure we are not hassled. That creepy guy in the hot dog pants had scared me a little. We get to her rickety old truck and I climb in.

I start up the truck and put her in reverse anxious to get away from the airport and that weird fellow in those damn ugly ass pants “We are homeward bound” I laugh and pull out of the parking lot.

After a little while, it all starts to sink in. Arls is driving on the wrong side of the road and it is very disconcerting. “Arls, we have to go shopping, oh my god. What a night we are going to have tonight.”

”Oh my lord we sure are” I say “We can check out the malls here in Reno if you like Susanville has shitty little stores at best...let’s stop at the liquor store too, I think we deserve a few bottles of the Good Stuff”

“Abso-fraggin-lutely” I tell her. “And lets get that damned DVD recorder you been talking about. We can spend the next few days recording all my DVDs for you” I laugh at the prospect of a drunken few days watching the Pretender. It would be heaven. People will ask me when I got back what sights I saw and I will only be able to tell them that I barely left the living room at Arls’ place.

I look back at her in surprise “Awww are you sure hun? Wow a DVD recorder, gosh shit, I am so gonna cry again.” We head down south Virginia Street where all the massive hotel Casinos are and make our way to Meadow wood Mall. “Let’s do some damage” I laugh giving her a wink as we head into the mall.

“Knock yourself out Arls, anything you want. This is just going to be great” Everything here is about twice the size of things back home and I feel like a stupid Aussie tourist, which I guess I am.

”Awww hun, you are the bestest of the bestest” I say with a grin, as we hit the stores, scooping up loads of new clothes. “Check out this shop Jacs” I say “It’s got loads of movie and music memorabilia” Inside we find lots of U2 stuff and Jacs has a field day grabbing up whatever she can find. “She’s a fan” I giggle to the salesman as she keeps grabbing more and more things off the shelves.

I had never seen so much stuff in one place. “Where I am from, we just can’t get stuff like this. Arls, we have to think about what to wear, wanna look our best” there were too many things I wanted, didn’t know where to look first.

We shopped for hours it seemed Jacs loved the music stores and we had great fun trying on all kinds of clothes “You know what would be fun, when we get to Vegas we so have to go to the day spa and get makeovers.”

“Yes” I answered eagerly, turning our attention to some booze and food for when we got back.

Jacs had pretty much cleaned out the music store of their U2 stuff, she bought so much the sales guy, even offered to carry all our shit out to the truck for us. We find a store and load up on food and lots of liquor then start the 80 mile trip to my house back in California.

By the time we got back to the truck, we had spent over $4100.00 I was ecstatic. “Arls, I am going to blow all of this money on this trip, so start thinking about what you want to do. And I gotta pay Lil Roo back too” I told her. If it hadn’t been for him, I never would have gotten here in the first place. I was looking forward to meeting these crazy brothers of hers.

I look back at Jacs and then say “We gotta make one last stop Jacs, how about we watch those Pretender DVDs of yours in style” I turn off at the nearest Circuit city an electronics store “I do have some money squirreled away and I have been dying to buy I big screen tele, A damn fine one too…..think a 50 inch screen is too big to watch Jarod on?” I laugh.

“Keep that money Arls, this is on the casino” I laugh, hardly believing my good fortune, and I was going to make sure this was the best damn holiday I ever had.

”Damn Krackers what would the Ferengi alliance say about this” I joke as we head off to buy the new tele.

“I think Krackers would be exiled from Ferenginar for all eternity, but if you don’t tell, neither will I”

”I won’t say a word” I laugh, after we get the sales boy to wheel out the new set and put it in back of the truck, we are off once again “Just cross your fingers it doesn’t rain or snow on us”

I look around at the scenery, and am disappointed when there is not all that much to see. It was my first trip to the states and I was very curious.

”It’s all freaking desert out here” I say “Not much to see really” It was getting dark now and after a few hours, we pulled into my driveway, the house was pitch black, I look at Jacs and say sorry about this but the truck is dodgy so you gotta roll down the window and open it from the outside or your stuck in here.

Chapter 3- One Crazy Night

I climb out of the truck and look around. “Let’s get all this stuff inside so we can play. This is going to be great. I need me something to drink, that flight lasted forever.”

”Oh hell yeah” I say somehow by a force unknown we manage to haul in everything that loaded down the back end, at last we were indoors. I flicked on the light and say “My couch is shit, my dog’s a bitch but the house is clean.”

I look around at the house, it was homey, and the room was going to be dwarfed by the massive TV we just bought. We had so much junk that we just dumped down and I had my dorky Aussie gifts to give out too yet.

”We can go see the Roo’s in the morning they are at their houses, but we can get this tele rigged up and pop in the DVDs” After struggling to get the shit out of it’s box and up on the stand, I looked down at the massive amounts of cords and cables “Shit gotta call Sting for some advice on how to hook all this crap up.”

“Oh man, and wait to you try to set up the damned recorder. What a nightmare. Call Sting up, get him to fix it, and lets have us a party.” I proclaim, in the mood to celebrate.

”Sounds like a plan” I grin and ring up Sting’s number, I put him on the speaker phone which annoys the hell out of him, he grumbles but tells me where to connect everything.

“G’day mate” I call out from the background, giggling with Arls.

Lil’ Roo can be heard in the background saying in a happy voice “Hi Jacs, can you cuss for me just once, I love your accent” I tell him to hush but he insists like the little Roo he is.

“Son-of-a-bitch” I tell him in my ‘cute’ accent, as he puts it. I then inform them that they are the ones with the accents.

He laughs and asks if she smuggled him in a Roo or at least a koala, I tell him to hush once more, Sting is laughing in the background as I finally manage to hook up things properly.

“Got them right here in my bag” I inform him. He has a fixation with Australian wildlife at the moment, and was disappointed to find we didn’t all have Roos in our yards. I shake my head at the dumbness of Americans when it comes to Aussie culture.

I tell the Roo’s goodnight after they ask if we are going to be throwing some shrimp on the barbi and drinking Fosters. “Well we are all set what shall we watch first?” I ask but I know already which DVD will be put in first. Pulling out the snackies and Jacs’ prized bottle of scotch and my Vodka lemonade, we settle in for the show.

I slip Red Rock into the machine and squealed in delight as I saw a glorious 50 inches of Jarod in widescreen, surround sound glory. Long gone are my shitty videos with ads and my sub standard VCDs. Of course we talked all the way through the episode, pausing it every so often to admire the scenery before us. “God damn it Arls, that Lyle is such a prick, look what he is doing to Jarod” I curse at the T.V.

”Damn I know what you mean, I hate Lyle” I say taking a drink “Poor Jarod, someone should treat him good, take care of him for a change.”

“I would look after Jarod” I pout, more than a little drunk by now. I can’t believe I just flew half way across the world to watch a T.V show. But she hated Lyle for completely different reasons than I did. She was not concerned about what he did to poor Jarod, but that he killed Kyle, and after only such brief appearances too. Luckily she had Touching Evil to fall back on, but those morons at the USA network had canned that too.

I look down at my bottle which is surprisingly already half gone and add “I bet you would take real good care of Jarod if you had him” We put on another episode and sit back giggling some more and chatting.

“Ohh yea” I sniff, mourning with Jarod the loss of his brother, but once Dragon House goes in, all is forgotten because Kyle is back again. I know Arls loves Dragon House because that is THE Kyle episode, but I am already looking forward to Unforgotten, which will be my next choice. Season 2 has all the best stuff in.

I sit entranced as I watch, I love watching Kyle “You know I can never get enough of this episode Jacs” I smile “Damn it’s gonna be something to really meet these guys in Vegas” I am getting quite tipsy by now and add “We could totally stalk the stars Jacs”

“I got dibs on Michael, you go for Jeffrey. Does that sound fair?” I ask her, slurring my speech by now and shaking my head at her Kyle fixation. But it’s all good. “Just make sure we stay away from Jamie, he is a bad man” I proclaim.

I laugh, one thing about Jacs and I we have always agreed on which guys we want “Totally agreed” I jump up and dig around in my closet for my pajama’s, I have about 30 pairs and finally settle on a pink one “There’s 2 bathrooms one off to your right and one that’s connected to my bedroom if you wanna change, got the 3 bedrooms, one is my computer room at the back of the hall, but we can just flop down on the mattress here in the living room, its comfy.

“Here sounds damn fine” I tell her munching on more junk food, eyes glued to the set. “Ohh shit, here it is....my fave part....Ohh look at that. Jarod chained to the bed that is what I want to see.”

I turn around and look at the screen and grin “I bet you wouldn’t mind having Weiss in that position, bet he wouldn’t mind either.”

I knock down the last of my drink, “It wouldn’t be a hardship that is for damned sure” I tell her. Not that I have ever had THAT particular fantasy before.

”You know Jacs” I say more than drunk now “Remember all those times we used to joke about what we would do if we ever met Weiss?”

“Yes” I sigh, looking at the screen, to drunk to really make coherent thoughts work anymore.

”Well you are going to get a chance to really meet him in person; I bet you even get a hug when we go to the private party” I am musing over some naughty thoughts by now and look back into my drink “Would be funny if...oh shucks it’s just a silly.”

“What?” I ask, pausing the video just as that bitch Bridgette climbs over his prone body. “What?” I ask again.

I giggle not believing what I am about to say “What if we…..what if we really do it?”

“Do what Arls?” I ask, way too drunk to play guessing games.

I stumble to the refrigerator and pour myself some juice into a glass mixing it with some vodka “Want some Juice Jacs?” I ask her with a devious smile. As I poke my head around the corner, Jacs gives me a little scowl.

“You know how I feel about the damned juice Arls” I reply as she comes back into the living room with her drink. “Now are you going to let me know what you are thinking about?”

Flopping back down on the bed I look over at Jacs, pausing for a moment to take a long drink then say with a sneaky grin....”Let’s steal Weiss”

Chapter 4: What Plans Are Made

“Steal him?!” I burst out laughing, but I have to admit, deep down, very deep down, the incredible appeal of the notion. “How do you steal a person?” I ask her, just for curiosity’s sake.

”I know its crazy isn’t it?” I reply, thinking by now that I may have gone insane, but suddenly all these ideas start popping into my head “Well what if we...what if we devise a plot to lure him off somewhere”

“We are going to lure him off and then steal him?” I laugh incredulously, but my eyes drift to the paused frame on the huge TV. “And what, Just cuff him to my bed?” I ask Arls, scoffing at the ridiculous notion. But still I could not drag my eyes away from the TV.

”Now that’s an idea” I reply, getting into this now “Think about it Jacs...we can take him and  keep him somewhere, somewhere no one would ever think to look for him”

“Yeah....” I say, sitting up straighter now, the idea seeming less and less absurd.

”Only we gotta get him out of this country though after we steal him” I add “Have you any ideas on where we could hide out with him?”

“I don’t know about that” I say at first, then thinking some more I add “But... where I am from, we have The Dead Heart, half of Australia is desert and no one would think to ever look for him there.” I pour myself another drink. I can’t believe Arls’ and I are actually discussing this.

”And picture this...” I say taking another drink “With all that money you just won, you could totally buy some land somewhere far off out in the middle of nowhere”

“How about in the Australian Outback?” I offer up looking back at Arls, then smiling I add “Maybe we could take him to my little secret mountain hideaway”

”You never told me you had a secret mountain hideaway Jacs” I say pretending to be surprised.

“If I told you Arls” I answer back jokingly “Then it wouldn’t have been a secret now would it?”

Now I start to giggle knowing full well, that in reality she doesn’t actually have such a place. Well not yet anyway. “So you were keeping it a surprise then?”

“That I was” I reply starting to laugh as well. “But seriously Arls....” I say as I lift my bottle of scotch up to her glass in a toast “Let us toast to…shall we say, my future real estate investment”

I clink my glass with Jacs’ bottle of scotch and add “And to what dreams may come” We both take a long drink growing quiet for a moment. My mind is reeling with thoughts about what it would be like to actually pull this thing off.

“But just getting him there....” I say after a bit “Now that would be the problem”

”Well what about this idea...”  I say as I swallow down even more of my drink “Didn’t you once tell me that Weiss has not made any movies for awhile now?”  I grin back at Jacs; thoughts are running rampant inside my head as I speak. “So do you think it just might be possible that he would be interested in say...a audition for some kind of movie maybe?”

“Yes, and we could make it a nasty role. He hates the good roles now, and he loves nature and stuff.... Maybe” I pause for a moment to think then continue” Maybe we could tell him it is going to be filmed in a rain forest or something, and he is being considered for the lead role of the villain.”

”Oh and how about this...what if we can convince him that we are representing some movie production company” I say looking back at Jacs who is continuing to sip on her drink.

“Yes, but if we go that route we couldn’t act like crazy fans, I love you Jarod, None of that stuff, we would have to be professional.”

”Oh indeed, we should get total makeovers we would need the right look, the proper clothes... you know the whole nine yards” I flop back down and stare at the screen as Jacs resumes the show, It would be awesome if we could pull this off, Jacs is one of my best friends and there wasn’t anything that I wouldn’t do for her just to make her happy. “But when and where should we approach him with this?” I ponder out loud. “The timing would have to be perfect so we don’t raise his suspicions”

“I say we do it on the very last day of the convention” I reply, my alcohol-slow brain almost clanking over with all the possibilities “At the private party maybe?”

”Ohh yes... yes, that’s good, the party is scheduled to take place the evening of the last day” I agree standing up, lighting one of my menthol cigarettes and pondering even more as I start to  pace the floor a bit. “By that time everybody would be socializing and doing a bit of drinking and since it would be on the last day he wouldn’t have much time to check out our references thoroughly and since this will all take place at a party, his business manager would not be there hovering around him”

I look back at Arls who is looking quite serious now as she talks “But how could we fool him into believing that we are actually from a legit movie company?” I ask.

”Well these days everything is done over the Internet... what we would have to do is start by hacking into a movie production company website so we could get all the correct information...contact details, maybe even false identities, that sort of stuff, we would really have to research everything properly so that we come across like people who are really in the business”

“You know me, I can barely sort my emails out” I say, biting on my lip. The idea hooking into my brain and I find myself actually wondering if we could really do it. “How could we do something like that?”

”We won’t have to Jacs” I grin pausing the DVD for a moment “I have just the ferret in mind who can do something like that...my brother, the one you nicknamed Sting, he’s the best hacker I know, he knows how to get inside secure places on the ‘net, we just have to persuade him to do it, maybe I could get him to do it on a dare, a challenge or something, he loves that sort of stuff. So James Bond and shit”

“Or we could just bribe him” I add giving Arls a wink.

”Or we could do that” I laugh. “Your plan sounds much easier”

“But how do we get Weiss to board a plane to Australia willingly?” I ask her “If we already tell him that the movie will be shot in the Rain forest or somewhere like that?”

”Well we will somehow have to convince Weiss that the auditions are being held in Sydney, Australia where our company is located” I reply thinking for awhile then add “He would know that auditions are rarely ever held at the same place that they actually film the movie”
“Sounds like a plan” I tell her, then turn my attention back to the screen as the episode ends “Your choice Arls, what ep do you want to see now?”

“Well... let’s see one where Jarod gets caught” I reply with a smirk. “Maybe it will give us some inspiration”

“Oh another favorite” I say with delight as I pop in The world is changing then sit back “Jarod looks damn fine with no shirt on” I muse to myself softly as the evil Mr. Lyle hoses him down.

”He’s all yours Jacs” I grin back munching on some popcorn “At least he will be soon”

“But what about you Arls, it hardly seems fair, what are you going to do?” I ask her, nodding very seriously as I add. “You know...Jeffrey Donovan will be there too”

“It’s still tomorrow here” I murmur, damn time zones had buggered me up big time. It was yesterday here when I left and tomorrow in Australia. “That’s a good idea” I yawn, jet lagged, drunk and my head now filled with ideas of kidnapping Weiss.

”Nighters Jacs, Sweet dreams” I say in a drowsy voice, my eyes closing as soon as I snuggle up with my pillows.

“Nighters” I murmur, practically falling asleep as I speak.