balletrat | (no subject)

*Meg waits - and watches as Rick walks into the gambling room, and promptly proceeds to blatantly weight the tables in favor of Annina's young husband.*

Say, you sure this place is honest? *a customer complains.*

*Renault calls it, really: As I suspected, you're a rank sentimentalist.*

*Andrew is looking positively smug.*

*Meg pulls a face at him, as a group of Germans begin to sing their national anthem.*

And how many pretty young wives didn't he save from Renault over the past however many years, *she starts to mutter - and then stops, her attention caught, as Victor Laszlo fills the screen.

And begins to lead the room in the Marseilleise.*

*Andrew is already making shushing noises before Laszlo starts, but that rapidly becomes irrelevant.*

*The Marseilleise is drowning out Deutschland Uber Alles quite satisfactorily.*

*He LOVES this bit.*

*It's safe to say that Meg is enthralled, at the very least.
Allons enfants de la patrie
Le jour de gloire est arrive
Yvonne leaves her German officer sitting at the table to stand up and sing at the top of her lungs.
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L'étendard sanglant est levé
A good two-thirds of the cafe is singing by this point.
Entendez-vous dans nos campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras.
Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes!
Meg is not singing; but a close observer might notice her lips moving.*

*And the look on Meg's face isn't too far removed from the look on Yvonne's --*

*The song comes to an end. There's applause, and cheers, and Yvonne choked with emotion and flinging defiance in the Germans' faces, Vive la France! Vive la democracie! and the crowd echoing her.*

Vive la France, *Meg echoes, softly.

She may or may not be aware she's done it.*

*Meanwhile, Strasser is busily Naziing about and ordering the place shut down.*

*And Renault seizes on a pretext: he is shocked, shocked to discover that there is gambling going on in here. Even as a croupier hands him his winnings.*

*Meg still looks somewhat pensive, as the film rolls on, but that earns a light snicker.

She sobers again, though, when Ilsa penetrates Rick's room - and, in desperation, pulls out her gun and threatens to shoot.*

*And for a moment, there's a look of admiration in Rick's eyes.*

*Andrew kind of gets that.*

*He glances over at Meg.*

*Meg's watching the screen, and her face is inscrutable.

Go ahead and shoot, says Rick.

Ilsa can't, of course.*

*And he moves in to kiss her.*

*Andrew's hand edges over toward Meg's, as the two figures on the screen embrace.*

*The screen fades to black for a moment, leaving the room dark.

When the picture comes up again, Ilsa and Rick are seated on the couch talking, and Andrew's palm rests over Meg's.

Meg's eyes still don't shift from the screen. Her fingers curl up lightly against the side of his hand, though.*

*I know that I'll never have the strength to leave you again, Ilsa tells Rick.*

*Andrew's hand tightens on Meg's, a little.*

*Meg's gaze flickers from the screen to their linked hands, and then back again; and her mouth curves in a tiny wry almost-smile, as Ilsa tells Rick, I wish I didn't love you so much.*

* * * * *

*It's a little later. Carl has taken Ilsa home, and Victor Laszlo and Rick Blaine are speaking.*

*Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this? Rick asks. I mean what you're fighting for?*

*Victor tells him that we might as well question why we breathe, and Andrew's nodding slowly.*

*Meg gives Andrew a quick fond glance; and then Victor asks Rick to take the woman they both love away from Casablanca, and Meg turns back to watch Rick's incredulous face as he asks if Laszlo loves her enough to send her away with another man.*

*Laszlo looks at him. Apparently you think of me only as the leader of a cause. Well, I am also a human being. ...Yes, I love her that much.*

*Andrew's got one knee drawn up to his chest; with a low sigh, he leans forward to rest his cheek against it.*

*As if to punctuate this statement, several armed gendarmes force their way into the cafe for the purpose of arresting Laszlo.

Meg's seen armed gendarmes before, but she's not looking at them now.*

*Shortly thereafter: Rick manages to convince Renault to release Laszlo, as he himself intends to leave the country with Ilsa and hand Laszlo to Renault on a platter.*

*Andrew glances at Meg sidelong.

*Catching Andrew's glance:*

Well, Laszlo did ask.

*He's not smirking. Not really.*

Wait. For. It.

*Meg eyes him.

And waits.*

Love, it seems, has triumphed over virtue, *says a smug Renault, as he prepares to arrest Laszlo.* Thank -

Not so fast, Louis, *Rick says, and the camera focuses in on the gun pointed at Renault.*

*Renault demands to know if Rick has taken leave of his senses; Rick acknowledges, quite calmly, that he has. Renault is persuaded to sit down.*

*And Andrew is grinning like a thief.*

*Meg pulls a face at him - well, sort of at him; it's intended for him, anyways, even though she's still watching the screen - just as Rick says,* And remember, this gun's pointed right at your heart.

That is my least vulnerable spot, *says Renault, as he picks up the phone.*