Seeing Stars
By Jason Ulloa
Original story by Moonsong
Continued with her permission.


Chapter 6

"So, how do you feel, Darien?" Amy asked, a small smile 
present on her face.

"Ready," he replied, then took a deep breath. "A little 
nervous, but ready." He played with the light grey necktie 
around his neck and tugged at the collar of his midnight 
blue shirt to loosen it a bit. He wasn't sweating - makeup 
took care of that - but he felt that he might break out into a 
sweat soon if he had to wait any longer. He put his hands 
casually into the pockets of his black slacks and took 
another deep breath. "Shall we get started?"

"In a few minutes, Darien," she replied. "I'm just waiting 
for.... Ah, there he is."

Darien turned around to see Melvin walking up to them 
with an expectant grin on his face. "So, we're ready?" he 
asked eagerly. "So soon, too? You've really worked fast 
on this Amy. If things keep up at this rate, then this movie 
will be done months ahead of schedule."

Amy shook her head with a sigh. "Today's just been a good 
day, Melvin. Don't expect things to go this well all the time."

He nodded as if he was expecting that. "Yes, I understand, 
Amy. Well, I'm sure you know better. Anyway, I'm here to 
see our 'Jack' perform for the first time." He looked Darien 
up and down, taking in the details of his character's outfit. 
"Hmm.... Very good. Yes, you'll make a splendid 'Jack 
Terrance'. Now, don't disappoint us, Darien. Our professional 
reputations are at stake here."

Darien gave Melvin a questioning glance. "Professional 
reputations?"

"You can't expect successful producers and directors of 
our caliber to make mistakes on big parts like yours, Darien," 
he replied. "Remember, we passed up many experienced 
actors and chose you. A bold move on our part. Decisions 
like that are expected to succeed when people like us make 
them."

"I see," Darien replied, fully understanding how important it 
was to do well at his part. "You have nothing to worry about, 
Melvin. You'll see that I wasn't the wrong choice." He was 
surprised at the level of confidence in his voice, but he didn't 
say anything when he saw Melvin nodding.

"That's good to hear," he said with another smile. "I'll be 
watching your performance, Darien. I hope you will do better 
than we expected." He then turned and walked away, leaving 
Amy and Darien to watch his retreating back.

"Well," Amy said finally, "I hope that doesn't put any 
unnecessary pressure on you. Melvin means well, but he 
sometimes tends to worry. Most of the time his wife is around 
to help relieve him of his anxieties, but she's just getting over 
a cold and couldn't be here today."

"Melvin's wife?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied with a nod. "She's not officially a part of 
this movie, but she does come in every now and then to help 
out her husband when she's not producing another movie. The 
only reason she's not an official producer of this movie is 
because she had a family emergency to take care of back in 
her home country, Japan. Her mother got sick and she needed 
her. Melvin went with her, but was called back to produce for 
this movie. He agreed reluctantly, at his wife's urging. She 
came back just a week ago, but she caught sick a few days 
ago." She gave him a sidelong glance. "I think you may 
remember her. After all, she was the one Serena forced to 
fire you."

"Molly?" he asked in surprise. He remembered her: a pretty 
green-eyed redhead who usually wore a ribbon in her hair 
and spoke with a slight accent. She was Melvin's wife?!? 
Talk about strange tastes in men.... "I don't remember her 
last name being Van Holst. What was it again? I can't 
seem to remember...."

"She never changed her last name," Amy explained. "She 
kept it unchanged because she was already a well-known 
producer by the time she married. She considers it a 
professional name." She raised an eyebrow an amusement. 
"You truly don't remember? She was the one who paid you, 
and you can't even remember her last name?"

"She was on a first name basis with everyone," Darien 
replied. "At the time, I really didn't care who she was as 
long as I was paid."

"Her last name is Osaka," she told him. "Molly Osaka."

"So that was Molly Osaka," Darien said thoughtfully. "I 
recognize the name now. At least now I can put a face to 
the name."

He thought he saw some movement out of the corner of 
his eye. He turned slightly and saw Serena glaring at him; 
her arms folded as she studied him intensely. "I think we 
should get started now," he said flatly.

Amy glanced in the direction he was looking in and saw 
Serena. "I guess you're right," she replied. "Okay, Darien, 
take your place and wait for my cue." Darien nodded and 
left for his position on the set.

As soon as Darien left, Serena walked up to Amy. "So, he's 
really gonna play opposite of me," she murmured, almost to 
herself as she watched Darien. "I kept hoping that this was 
a bad dream, but I suppose it isn't."

Amy glanced at Serena and opened her mouth to say 
something, but closed it again instead. Talking to her in 
that frame of mind would be a waste of time at the moment. 
Better to wait until lunch. There would be time to talk then.

"Ready?" she called out toward the set. "Action!"

            **********************************************

Jack Terrance sat at the bar, slowly sipping his drink as he 
looked over the crowd dancing in the middle of the club. Wine. 
He wanted his wits about him tonight, so the hard stuff was out. 
Not that he couldn't hold his liquor, but for some reason, he 
had always been oversensitive to alcohol. Anything over 50% 
proof would go through him like water and kick in within minutes. 
Anything over 90% proof would take him out in five shots. It 
was embarrassing sometimes, but most of the time he didn't 
care. It was something he just had to live with.

It was hard singling out one person in a crowd, but he had 
experience in that sort of thing with his line of work. Being a 
private investigator, you had to be sharp. Otherwise, you'd 
lose business.

The person he was watching was totally unaware that he 
was there and watching him. That was how it was supposed 
to be. The woman sitting a few chairs away from him gave 
him a quick glance, then turned back to her drink. Jack 
didn't give her a second thought as he watched his target 
leave the dance floor and sit down at the other end of the 
bar. As he nonchalantly pretended to be interested in 
whoever else was dancing, he gazed at the man at the 
other end of the bar, and the woman who just sat down 
next to him.

A woman coughed loudly just two chairs away from him.... 
Wait. Wasn't that the same woman he saw further away 
before? It was. No matter, she wasn't important, and he 
wasn't the paranoid type.

He glanced over to the other side again. The man and 
woman were talking with their heads close to each other. 
No surprise; with the music and conversations everywhere, 
it was loud here. It was a good thing that he was a skilled 
lip-reader.

'...so I told her that I'd be working late again,' the man said 
to the woman. 'It's a good thing that she's used to my 
having to work late; I can use it as an excuse whenever I 
want.'

'Are you sure she doesn't suspect a thing?' the woman asked.

'Nah, she's not that bright. It'll take her months before she'd 
begin to suspect, and by then, we'll be long gone. Are you 
sure that you can get the keys?'

'Keys?' Jack thought to himself. 'What's he talking about?'

'Yeah, I think so. Mr S. isn't very trusting, but he hates having 
to sort through that huge safe of his. I don't think he even 
bothers to check if everything's there....'

'Woah, this is becoming a LOT more complicated than I 
thought,' Jack realized.

"So, was she right?" a female voice asked from the seat next 
to him. Jack turned to see the same woman again, but sitting 
next to him now. As soon as turned to face him, he recognized 
the woman. His client, Elayne Beoulve. She hired him because 
her sister, Carla Erwight, suspected her husband of cheaing on 
her. So much for her not being very bright.

"Why are you here?" he asked with a false smile on his face. 
No need to tip his target off. Just another guy picking up on a 
girl. "I thought I'd told you that I'd let you know when I found out 
something."

"To tell the truth, I wanted to go out tonight," Elayne replied. "I 
didn't know Nate would come here. Coincidence."

Jack nodded slightly. "I suppose. Well, as long as you're here, 
I can tell you what I've found." He took another sip of his wine 
and leaned on his elbow, feigning a confident, I'm-gonna-try-to-impress-
you-with-my-coolness pose. "Nate's definitely cheating on Carla...."

"I knew it!" she all but shouted, almost jumping to her feet. He 
raised a cool eyebrow at being interrupted and she sat back 
down, slightly abashed at her outburst. "I'm sorry."

"If you're ready to listen, I can tell you more," he said dryly. 
She nodded silently and he continued. "I'm not sure of the 
woman's name, yet. I've been mostly trailing Nate; watching 
where he was going and who he was talking to. There wasn't 
much until a few days ago, when he was supposedly working 
late for three days in a row." She nodded, remembering that 
from what her sister told her. "He wasn't. The first day, he 
went to a restaurant and waited for someone - a woman."

"You weren't sure then?!?" she asked incredulously.

"No, I wasn't," he replied curtly. "From their conversation, 
it could've been only a business dinner. Those kinds of 
things do happen occasionally," he added with a pointed look. 
He was getting tired of being interrupted. She nodded again 
and gestured for him to continue.

"Yesterday, he drove to an enclosed apartment complex. 
Before you can ask, I couldn't tell whose apartment it was, 
but I had my suspicions. I didn't say anything because I 
needed to be sure before actually saying yes or no. It 
wouldn't be good for my professional rep to be wrong, now 
would it? As for today...." He trailed off, glancing to the other 
side of the bar with his eyes.

"Okay, I understand," she told him. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes," he replied, glancing quickly at the two at the other end 
of the bar. "I think there might be some kind of illegal plot 
between Nate and that other woman. They were talking about 
some keys, and the woman mentioned a Mr. S - her boss, 
maybe - and a safe. Embezzlement, I'm guessing."

Elayne frowned. "I never did like Nate, but I never expected 
him to be involved in any sort of illegal stuff."

"There's no proof, yet," he said after he finished his drink. 
"I wouldn't worry, though. You've been forewarned, so you 
and your sister can deal with Nate. This is important: do NOT 
let Nate know you suspect him of being invovled in an 
embezzlement plot. If you tip him off, he'll tip off her, and she 
might make a premature move, or do something worse. There 
has been cases of murder where the victims suspected... 
and were silenced."

Elayne gulped nervously. "He wouldn't...."

"Are you sure?" Jack asked as he got up from his barstool. 
"Anyways, I'm done here. The job's complete: you know that 
he's cheating on his wife. Leave it at that. My secretary will 
contact you with the amount of my bill, and will answer any 
questions you may have about it."

"Where are going?" she asked quickly.

"I have some paperwork to fill out," he replied as he turned 
to leave. "The police should be notified of this plot. 'Forewarned 
is forearmed', you know. Don't worry about Nate being arrested; 
not without any proof of wrongdoing. I'm going to keep a watch 
on that woman."

"Why?" she asked. "I never hired you to watch that woman."

"I sometimes work with the L.A.P.D.," he replied, "and sometimes 
for them. They'd appreciate any infomation they can use against 
that woman, should she commit the crime." He gave her a small 
grin over his shoulder. "Good night, Elayne." With that, he left 
the club, mentally reviewing anything that he might need for the 
report.

            **********************************************

"Cut!" Amy shouted grin a huge grin on her face. "Wonderful, 
people! Let's break for lunch!"

Serena blinked in surprise for a moment. The scene was over 
already? "Oh, okay." She turned to leave when Amy called out 
to her.

"What did you think of Darien's performance?" she asked with 
an obviously smug grin.

Serena answered her grin with a tight-lipped one of her own. 
"He has some meager skill, I'll give him that." She whirled around 
and stalked off the set.

"So, what did she think?" Darien asked, walking up to Amy and 
watching Serena storm off.

"I think she was impressed," Amy replied with a wide grin. "We 
both were."

"All three of us were," Melvin added. "Amy didn't even have to 
stop the scene once for another take. Flawless!"

Darien grinned widely. "Thank you, both."

"Don't get too cocky, though," Amy chided. "It was an easy 
scene. Harder scenes are yet to come. Afterwards, your acting 
skills will really be tested. Now, go to lunch. Be back in an hour."

"Right," Darien nodded and left.

Amy turned to Melvin and grinned. "Melvin, would you do me a 
favor and see if G.Q. would mind coming down Thursday? Tell 
him that I think I might have another job for him."

Melvin's smile almost split his face. "With pleasure, Miss 
Anderson," he said cheerfully. "With great pleasure." Humming 
happily to himself, he left to go phone a certain writer. Amy 
watched him go, gave an exasperated, yet amused sigh and 
went to lunch.

            **********************************************

                                 To Chapter 7

            **********************************************

Author's Note: Darien has passed his first test with flying 
colors, but will he do just as well during the entire movie? How 
will the script change once G.Q. gets a hold of it? How will 
Serena take it once she discovers that he's going to be 
bumped up to co-star status? Wait and see, won't you? ^_~

Disclaimer: All original materials belong to their respective 
owners. Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi and a bunch 
of big companies. No copyright infringement is intended. This 
story belongs to Moonsong and myself, and I would appreciate 
you emailing her or myself for permission before posting it 
anywhere else. Thank you.

Prologue Copyright © January 24, 2000 Moonsong.
Other Chapters Copyright © August 12, 2000 Jason Ulloa. 
All Rights Reserved.