The panicky avoidance of wrapping up a large story has set in, which explains why I had to write a small one-shot in an unrelated fandom before I could even open the last chapters of Electronic Thumb this weekend. This is becoming a pattern, where I need some kind of escape palate-cleanser before I can put a complex novel to bed. In this case, I wrote fix-it fic for a sixty-four year old movie.

Jessie Royce Landis and Cary Grant were both comfortably in their fifties when they made To Catch A Thief, and I've always found their chemistry way more interesting and fizzy than what he had with Grace Kelly, which never really clicks at all even if you set aside that Francine is at best a mid-twenties thrill-seeking Texan wrapped in posh manners and haute couture.

An infuriating side note, Landis was about 7 years older than Grant, but was then cast as his mother in North by Northwest (1959). Yeah, fuck that.



A Price Above Rubies (1079 words) by feldman
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: To Catch a Thief (1955)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jessie Stevens/John Robie
Characters: Jessie Stevens, John Robie, Germaine
Additional Tags: hot blooded texans, aged and mellow
Summary: “Francie is like lemonade,” Jessie had told him after dinner that first night, on the terrace where he’d originally seduced her name from Hughson. “She’s cold, and she can be tart, but she’s sweet in equal measure.”
John sipped his port until she stopped looking at the view, until she turned her head and tucked a loose curl behind her ear so she could study him with both eyes. He’d smirked down at her and drawled, “Lemonade gives me heartburn.”