Chapter Text
Another lazy night in Los Santos. The Fake AH Crew had no heists planned for the day, or anything planned for the day at all, really. They decided to hit a few bars and just make a chill day out of it.
"Just one?" Ryan pleaded, aiming a flare gun at an unsuspecting man across the street.
"No!" Geoff shoved Ryan's arm down, hoping no one saw the gun, "We're just gonna have a fun night-"
"But this is fun." Ryan grinned as Geoff glared him down. A couple snickers coming from the crew.
"We're just drinking tonight. We're just gonna get good and drunk and not get the cops called on us for once!" He snapped the last half of the sentence at them as threat to kill the fuck out of them all if they ruined his quiet night. Jack threw up her arms defensively, smiling, knowing if something went wrong it wouldn't be her fault. The others nodded lamely and Ryan put the flare gun away, rolling his eyes. "Good. Now let's go." Geoff headed into the bar, the crew following him.
"Lllllllllet's drink!" Ray cheered, rushing in, arms raised, getting laughs out of the others. Ray didn't drink, but hey, any excuse to yell about something was appreciated among the lads of the crew.
After sitting at the bar long enough for the crew to start getting tipsy - well, most of the crew, Ray and Ryan just drank waters and Cokes - a girl wondered over to claim the stool next to Ryan. A tipsy Gavin giggled at the tiny girl, who couldn't be more than five foot tall, hoist herself onto the tall stool.
"Nice face paint." She smirked at the mad man of the group, leaning against the bar, shaking her dark purple, messy, shoulder-length hair out of her face.
"Oh, thanks. See, someone gets it. Face paint goes with everything!" He smiled at the crew.
"So, that just a cool thing you do, or is it a cosplay, or...?"
"He's a fuckin' maniac is what it is." Michael laughed into his drink. The girl chuckled along, realizing this must be a thing he does often.
"Well it, uh, it suits you?" Her face screwed up in a smile, realizing how much that wasn't a great compliment. "Sorry, I'm Sam," she waved to everyone, "I'm, uh, new to Los Santos. So I'm, ya know, tryin' to be social and all that." She waved her hand, trying to force a casual air and hide her awkwardness at trying to make friends at a bar. The crew introduced themselves, not minding a little extra company.
"So where you from?" Jack asked.
"Out of state. I was in a small town, but I've always loved cities. So I came here."
"To Los Santos?" Michael laughed, "the most dangerous city there is!?"
Sam laughed along, "Well, it seemed exciting! I've got a black belt anyways, I think I can handle myself." She sat up straight, giving off an air of confidence and strength. The crew seemed intrigued and decided to let her hang with them for a bit.
They drank and joked and even let her tag along with them to the next few bars.
"My songs know what you did in the daaaaaaaaaaarrk~!" The gang sang out, drunkenly and horribly out of tune on their way to the last bar for the night, stumbling down the street; Jack and Geoff holding each other up and Gavin poking at Sam's Fall Out Boy tee that started this noisy assault on the poor ears of those they passed. "So light 'em up up up! I'm on fiiyyyyaaaahhhhh~!" Geoff's cracking voice rang through the night.
"Oh! Oh!" Gavin squawked, stopping all song and running across the street.
"Gavin! Where are you going!?" Michael called after him.
"Check it out!" Gavin pulled a discarded bicycle out of a ditch and climbed on, struggling to balance himself, "Imma do a cheeky little -" he fell over and rolled down the ditch, bike coming after him. A squawk only Gavin could manage was heard as the bike rolled over him. The gang howled with laughter, Geoff even falling to the ground and the other drunks clinging to Ray and Ryan for support. Gavin stumbled his way back to the group, laughing at himself.
"Oh you poor boy," Sam managed to get out through laughs, wiping tears from her eyes, "The bike beat you up." She gestured to all the scrapes he now had. "C'mon, my house is only a few more blocks. We'll get ya cleaned up." She hooked and arm around his and took the lead of this drunken parade. In her drunken mind, "a few blocks" meant the outskirts of the city.
It was a long walk, longer than it should've been, to get to her house. Michael tripped over nothing and tried to pick a fight with someone across the street, because the dude clearly shoved him. It took Ryan and Ray - who were the only ones able to actually get a hold of the rage master - to pull him out of the road and back on their path. Not to mention all the other stops that were had because Gavin wanted to try more stunts, which just resulted in more injury.
The longer they walked, the more the skyscrapers and city lights dwindled; and the more the small neighborhoods and trees took over.
"Here's my drive way!" Sam announced, starting the run up the path.
"It's fuckin' long as dicks!" Geoff looked up the path that led into a thick group of trees. It was hard to even see the house past all of it. It didn't help that the house was on the smaller side.
Sam cried out in laughter, never hearing such a phrase in all her life, "Oh, shut up! Let's go!" She grabbed his arm, dragging him with her as she tried to run. In her drunken state, showing her house to a bunch of strangers from a dangerous city was the most fun and rational thing she could think of. The drunker lads also shared in this enthusiasm and ran past her, their legs carrying them much farther than someone who doesn't often out run police. She got to her house, arm in arm with Geoff, who had dragged Jack with them, to see Gavin desperately trying to open her door with his keys and Michael yelling at him to hurry up. The drink made them think it was somehow a race to get into the house. Sam run up, wedging her body between Gavin and the door, trying to get her keys into the lock. Gavin just grabbed her and they started a little wrestling over who was gonna open the door.
"Micoo! My boi!" Gavin cried, Sam pinning him. He threw her keys, hoping Michael would take them and open the door. They instead fell to the porch as Michael lifted Sam off Gavin, joining in on the fight. It was Ray who picked them up with a laugh and opened the door.
"You assholes comin' in or what?" The three scampered past him and into the house, Michael still beating on Gavin and Sam flopping onto the couch face first. Geoff followed in, finding his way into the kitchen to look for more booze.
"Scoot your boot." Jack shoved Sam up right, making room for herself on the couch and throwing an arm around her. She kicked at Ryan when he tried to take a seat at the open end, "Girls only, bitch!"
"Oh sweet!" Ray noticed the x-box and fired up a game. Sam only had two controllers so he tossed the other to Ryan, who sat beside him on the floor.
"Oh!" Sam jumped up from the couch and ran off down the hall only to return with two large duffel bags, dropping them to the floor with a series of clanking sounds, "You guys wanna check out my weapon collection?" She beamed, opening up the bags to reveal a series of sharp weapons. They were her pride, something she's been collecting since her teens. Always a fan of ninjas and the sort. Ryan dropped the controller, receiving insults from Ray, and was the first into the duffel to play with the "toys." She was beyond thrilled at their response. Too often she received strange glances and judging questions for her collection. It was a welcomed change to make friends who shared her love of weapons. She handed Gavin a morning star, totally forgetting that they came here to bandage him up. Though, she was quickly reminded when he managed to swing the thing into his own leg. One half of that night was bandaging up injuries these drunken dorks gave themselves and each other. The other half was spent taking turns playing games on the x-box, and eventually, they all passed out.
Sam woke up the next morning to the smell of pancakes. She hoisted herself up, head heavy and ready to burst. She groaned at the pain, she normally isn't drunk enough to get a hangover. She looked around to see she was on the couch, Michael, Gavin, and Ray still asleep on the floor. She forced herself up and into the kitchen for some Advil, only to find it was already on the counter. Jack was in her kitchen, making pancakes, while Geoff and Ryan sat at her table, Geoff drinking from the rum he found.
"Mornin'." Jack smiled, handing her a glass of water and the Advil, "Hope you don't mind." She gestured not only to the pancakes, but also to Geoff drinking her rum. Sam liked her rum...but she decided she liked having friends more.
"Oh it's fine. Thanks, actually, for making breakfast." Sam smiled before choking down the pills.
"Don't worry about it. You let these assholes into your house! It's the least we can do."
"Can I borrow these?" Ryan chimed in, the duffel bags of weapons at his feet and quite a few of the weapons on the table.
"For what?" she raised an eyebrow at him, trying not to laugh at the mess that was his face. His paint had smeared all over in his sleep.
"Murder." He said matter-of-factly. Sam laughed, happy to see they shared the same weird sense of humor.
"Nah, man." She gathered up her weapons into the bags and hoisted them to her shoulders, "The last thing I want is you staining them with blood." She joked, carrying them back to her room.
"I'd clean them." He called after her, she huffed another laugh. What a dork.
"Awww fuck a duck!" Michael groaned, holding his head to try and keep it from exploding. He dragged his feet into the kitchen, where Sam had just sat with Ryan and Geoff, and the first of the pancakes were being served. "Dude, I might just blow my fuckin' head off. That'd be way easier than this shit."
"Well go outside. Don't make a mess of the house." Jack told him. Sam was digging into her pancakes, not thinking anything of the comments.
"Don't bother." Geoff said, reading something on his phone, "Go wake up the others and eat up. We got a job to do." Michael did as told and came back with grumpy and whiny lads.
"What do you guys do?" Sam asked, curious to learn about her new friends.
"A lot of different things." Was the only answer Geoff gave, and she didn't push further. The Crew ate quickly and departed with thanks and "see ya later"s, which made her happy. "See ya later." So they did like her. She had finally made some friends outside of work in this city. Sam cleaned up after her guests, turned on the tv, and pulled out some comics, ready to enjoy her day off.
It was late, Sam didn't mind that, she never went to bed until late anyways; but it was late enough that the bagging on her door bothered her. Who the hell's up and out right now anyways? She thought, making her way to the door. She opened it and was immediately struck with panic and horror. Her new friends were screaming at each other and shoving their way past her, slamming the door behind them. Geoff, Jack, and Michael all had guns out and looked to be shot in the shoulders or legs, Ryan had a black skull mask on and was carrying a missal launcher and a pink sniper, and he was covered in blood; Gavin had dragged in Ray and, oh god. Ray is what ruined her. He was absolutely covered in blood, it ran down his front, staining his purple hoodie and adding a sickening shine to his black shirt. He was gasping for air, choking on his own blood. Her hands flew over her mouth, shocked into silence. Ray...
"Do you see the cops?" Geoff demanded, Ryan dropped the missal launcher and used the scope on the sniper to look out her windows.
"Not yet. I told you, I think this place his hidden enough by those trees. They wont see the car."
"It better be covered enough!" He tossed a duffel onto the couch, money spilling out of it. Money also covered in blood.
"Hi Sam. Sorry 'bout this." Gavin gestured to Ray bleeding all over her floor, his own blue button down shirt and hands stained in Ray's blood.
"We'll clean it up, don't worry." Jack patted her shoulder, making her jump. She finally tore her eyes away from Ray to look at Jack, tears building in her eyes. She wanted to speak, but couldn't maker her mouth work. Her heart had jammed it's way into her throat. What the hell had happened? Her new friends, the people she had spent the previous night joking with, the people she had spent the night with, the people she had just seen this morning, what the hell had happened that now they were back, bloodied and one of them dieing on her floor? Sam snapped out of her shocked state enough to drop to her knees at Rays side and apply as much pressure as she could to his wound. Warm blood ran over her hands, making her sick at the thought of feeling him die beneath her.
"We-we need t-to call-" She started, wanting an ambulance for him, but instead received a yell from Geoff.
"We aren't callin' anyone!" He held a gun to her head. "If you bring the fuckin' cops here..." He didn't need to finish the sentence. Her eyes widened and her body shook as time froze. Geoff? This couldn't be... No. Why? Why would he? They were friends. Even if they weren't, Geoff was... He was a good person, he wouldn't...right? But there he was, gun to her head. She could die today.
And that's when it hit her. She had only met these people last night. She didn't know them. They seemed normal, but all psychopaths do at first, don't they? They were mixed up in something. And maybe they weren't so good after all. Someone, please. Help. She needed help. Not just for her life, but for Ray's and to help her understand this mess.
"Geoff," Jack pulled his attention away from her, "the last thing we need is to kill anyone else this heist, she won't call anyone," Jack looked at Sam, "Right?" Sam nodded slowly. Heist? She remembered Geoff mentioning a job at breakfast, and looked at the money on her couch. Oh god. Criminals. She had spent the night with criminals. They've killed today. They were criminals and murderers. She had let murderers into her house. Slept with them here. Ate with them. Oh god. Oh my god. Tears ran down her face as she remembered a conversation breakfast: "Can I borrow these?" "For what?" "Murder." Her blood ran cold, she felt her heart pound so hard in her throat she thought it'd escape. The fear gave her a strange focus. A clarity. She was aware of so much, and at the same time, too much. The smell of blood, gasoline, and gun powder. The screaming of voices trying to climb over each other to be heard, like a mad white noise. She was still frozen through it all. Then a violent jerking beneath her brought her focus to one thing. Ray. Ray was coughing blood and criminal or not she didn't want him to die. Not if she could help. Not if she could take control of something in all this madness. Ray's violent cough had gotten Geoff's attention as well.
"Well someone help him already?" Geoff called, voice cracking. Ryan was still scoping out the front window, Gavin went to watch the back, and Michael was searching for Sam's cell phone to keep her from calling anyone, so Sam started to move toward him. Jack walked over, reaching Ray before her.
BANG.