well good thing that this dinner is just to set up the plan and share contacts then; perhaps it can kinda be like reuben in the first movie, only showing up occasionally to do something amusing and useful.

later in the hotel room edmund says, "so. su. you and tess seemed friendly over dinner."

"we get along," shrugs susan. "i think we share a lot of things common. for example, when we first met, one of those things was that our men were in prison."

peter flops onto the bed, crawling over to where lucy is. "let's not mention those dark days, huh?"

+

"so, tess," says danny. "you know susan pevensie well, huh?"

tess just smiles.

+

at around 11 pm, edmund shows up at rusty's hotel room with cheetos and a laptop bag.

"tumnus's flight got delayed in detroit," says edmund when rusty opens the door, "but he's sent the new security codes. sopespian's learned from miraz, and we need to revise the sixth floor scheme."

"huh. you always did know just what to say to set the mood, ed." rusty looks at the cheetos bag. "are those for me?"

"they could be. if you're good."

rusty raises an eyebrow. "how good?"

edmund shrugs. "surprise me."

rusty reaches out and grabs the front of edmund's shirt, tugging him through the doorway. "you're a hard man to surprise, edmund pevensie."

"well if anyone can still surprise me, ryan," says edmund, dropping cheetos and laptop on the table, "it's you."