Author's Note: This is something I started a while back though I'd finally post it. I always wanted to do a songfic to this so I figured why not? Let me know what you think. Fast Car AKA Faster The gravel crunched beneath her feet as she walked down a lone country road at night. A young woman in her late teens or early twenties was walking by herself with arms wrapped protectively over her chest as she continued walking with her head down and keeping to herself. In the distance behind her a pair of headlights shone as a car quickly approached and slowed down when she appeared to the driver. The car slowed down to a crawl revealing it as a red Lamborghini and the passenger's window rolled down next to her. "You need a ride?" a young man her age asked. "No thank you." she said briefly glancing at him offering up a false smile. "You sure?" the driver asked. "Its getting dark I don't like the idea of you being out here by yourself." He said concerned. "I'm fine thanks." She said looking back at him. "Well how much farther are you going?" he asked still pressing the issue. "Not that far." She lied. "Well hop in I'll give you a ride over. It's no trouble really. I mean I don't want to have to read about you in tomorrow's paper getting eaten by wolves or something." He joked half-heartedly. The young girl laughed and smiled before glancing back at him. "I'm serious you don't know what's out here." He added. "I know what's out here. And my parents told me not to take rides from strangers." She told him half-jokingly. "But I'm not a stranger." He smiled back peering over his sunglasses. "Your not exactly from around here either. A Lamborghini Gallardo on a country road?" she asked while still walking. "Touché. I see you know your cars." he smiled back. The girl smiled not looking at him and shrugged. "My brother's into them, I dabble from time to time." she told him. "Yeah but have you ever ridden in a Gallardo?" he asked. The young woman continued walking. "Look, seriously I'm not trying to be a creep or anything. It's just that its getting dark and I'd feel bad leaving you out here. If you'd just point me to where it is your headed, I'll be happy to take you so you wont be stuck out here in the boonies with God knows what." He offered sincerely. "The boonies huh?" she mused. "My God an actual smile, we are making progress." He joked. The young woman chuckled again before looking back at him. "You promise not to try anything." She said. "Cross my heart and hope to drive off a cliff." He answered with a smile earning another small laugh from her as she kept walking. Any sensible woman would continue walking as Kori was doing, even if it was a dark country road with God knows what on the horizon. Every impulse in her mind was screaming at her to turn him down and continue walking but all the more the comfort of a leather seat and not having to walk began seeping through. "All right." she said with a smile. The young man nodded and finally stopped the car unlocking the door for her to get in. As soon as her short jean skirt touched the leather she closed the door and wrapped the seatbelt around herself. "I'm Rich by the way." he greeted. "I can tell." She replied. The boy chuckled. "No my name is Rich. Richard Grayson." He said holding out his hand. The girl kept her guard up but gradually reached out and shook his hand. "Kori Andersen." She said holding her other arm over her chest as a protective measure. He put the car in drive and took off up the winding gravel wooded road. "So what are you doing out here this late?" he asked eyes on the road. "I'd rather not talk about it." she said looking out the window. "I see, one of those scenarios." He added casually. A laugh mixed with a scoff escaped her lips before looking at him. "All right then, so what brings a guy like you to the middle of nowhere?" she joked. "My GPS is broken." He replied. "Uh huh." She said with a smirk and raised eyebrow. "In any case, I'll admit that this is one of the better parts of the drive." He countered. "I'm sure it is. So then where are you from? You must be pulling down big bucks if your able to drive this thing." She replied. "I'm from Gotham." Rich answered. "That explains it so then how'd a big city guy like you wind up so far from home?" she added. "Call it a cross country trip. I started this to rediscover myself." he said as he continued driving. "You are?" she asked leaning forward in her seat. "The daily grind was starting to get to me so I needed to get away for a while." He told her. "I'm Kori by the way, I just realized I hadn't told you that." she smiled. "That's a nice name, you don't hear it that often." He nodded. "Thanks." She said as they came to a turn that led up a hill. "So what brings you out here? I've already spilled. So what's your story?" he asked looking back at her. Kori was silent and drew her legs up to her chest. Rich exchanged glances between her and the road. His smile faded as the silence grew longer. "Kori?" he asked wondering if he touched a sore topic. "I have problems at home." she said with eyes closed. "Oh…I-I…I'm sorry. I didn't know." He answered softly. "Its okay, things are just sort of messed up right now." she replied in the same tone. "Is that why you were out here walking?" he asked growing more concerned. Again she remained silent. "So…um, where are you headed to then?" he asked. "It doesn't really matter, I just need to get out of there." she told him. "If there's somewhere you want to me to drop you off at, a friend's house or something I can make it happen." He replied. A smile came to her face as she looked back at him. "Why don't you show me what this thing can do?" she asked. He looked back at her kind of dumbstruck for a moment before smiling back. "Sure." He said throwing down the throttle and took off up the hill. Rich and Kori were thrown back in their seats as they raced up the winding gravel hill. The engine roared as they reached the summit and left the ground for a moment and skidded at the corner hugging the gravel as they raced on toward higher ground. "You realize this is kind of nuts, driving a $200,000 car through the backwoods like this." he said as he steered. Kori merely smiled as she hung onto the ceiling mounted handle. Slate gray stones flew behind them in a cloud of dust as the car raced down the country road with headlights beaming, before taking to another hard turn. "This is the most fun I've had in a while." She told him. Kori smiled as she held onto the handle and whipped around the turn while Richard downshifted and floored it heading towards the main road. He up shifted as they reached the end of the gravel road where a stop sign resided and slammed on the brakes sending gravel everywhere as he braked 150 feet up to the stop sign coming to a complete halt leaving them in a cloud of dust. The engine revved several times as they remained at the stop sign. "So you don't care where we go." He asked looking out at the road before there. "Go for it." she told him. Richard downshifted and spun the tires gripping the asphalt and did a sick burnout as he turned onto the road and took off a full burst towards the bridge in the distance, climbing the hill beyond it. The car whipped around the next corner at the top of the hill and took off towards town as Richard shifted through the necessary gears to get up to the desired speed. The countryside flew past them in a streak and disappeared in a blur behind them. "I used to work at a convenience store." She told him. Rich took his eyes off the road for a moment and looked at Kor. "Oh yeah?" he said. "It was just something to get by on, I hated it. My home life has been messed up for a while. Me and my sister argue all the time, and my Dad's disabled." She told him. "I'm sorry to hear that." he said. Kori shook her head. "Don't be. He had an on-sight accident a few years ago, he only thinks he's disabled." She replied. "How do you mean?" he asked. "He's lazy, he sits around all day drinking beer while I take care of him. He healed from his accident along time ago but decides he doesn't want to work. My mom left him because he kept using it as an excuse for why he wouldn't work and expanded it into other things. She finally had enough and left him a year ago, I've been taking care of him ever since." Kori elaborated. "That's terrible." He told her. "I know, and I got suckered into it because I felt bad for him." she said. "So, you're running away." Rich replied. Kori smiled and looked back at him. "Yeah. I guess I am." She said. Richard contemplated this as he continued driving and after a few minutes of thinking about it he slammed on the brakes surprising Kori and brought the car to a screeching halt. She looked back at him as he stared down at the wheel with the engine running and shut it off before getting out of the car. Kori watched him with a bewildered expression as he walked around the front and leaned against the guardrail. Kori opened the door and stepped out cautiously made her way over to him. "What's wrong?" she asked. Now it was Richard that was silent as he hung his head standing over the guardrail. "Was it something I said?" she prodded further. Richard rubbed his forehead as he tried to figure it out. "Will you say something already? You're starting to freak me out." she said reaching out to him. "What am I? What am I supposed to say Kori? This could be considered kidnapping if your dad finds out your missing. Ugh. I did not sign up for this." he groaned leaning over the rail. "Richard you don't know what its like being stuck in that rut. You drive a Lamborghini for crying out loud, your rich as hell. You…you don't know what its like." She said sitting down on the right front fender of his car. "Your right." he said without looking at her. Kori gasped and looked back at him from the corner of her eye. "But at the same time I know where you're coming from. I went on this road trip to escape my responsibilities back home. But if people jump to the wrong conclusions this is going to cause all kinds of problems. I'm just a 20 year old kid, I don't even know what I'm getting myself into with this." he told her. Kori sighed and sobered a bit hearing this. "You know you're the first person to give a damn about me in a while. I just feel like I'm suffocating and need to get out. I don't know if I can go back to that Richard." she said. "Heh heh. Its funny how much we have in common. We come from opposite ends of the spectrum and yet we're in the same mess together. Its poetic." He stated. "So then what were you running away from?" she asked walking over to him. He looked back and saw her standing next to him with her arms folded over her chest as though hiding herself. "I was supposed to take over Wayne Industries. The man who raised me groomed me to be his heir apparent. Wherever I went I was being manhandled by shareholders wanting to know if I had what it took to run the company. Everyday it was the same thing, it was to the point of harassment because they had so little faith in me and made it deathly clear. I couldn't take it anymore and so I ran." He answered. "That's horrible." She said. "Everything I did was scrutinized to the nth degree. It was ridiculous. I wanted to punch those bastards so bad because I didn't even want the company. But I was the eldest of his kids; it was either that or sell it to Powers Technologies. My little brother Tim is the only other person that could inherit it but he's still a minor." He said. "And here I am saying my life is horrible. At least you actually have a reason to run." She told him. "I may have a reason but its not all that noble either. You ran because you wanted an escape, I ran because I'm a coward. Looks like neither of us have a good reason to run." He said. Kori bowed her head and rested her arms on the railing next to him looking down over the edge. "I guess your right." she replied. "So now what?" he asked. "I don't know. I guess you better take me home before they miss Me." she said. "And I guess I better return to Gotham before they send a search party after Me." he added. "Yeah…thanks for the ride though." She smiled. "Hey it's been a long time since I've had a nice girl ride with me. Especially one that knows cars." he said peering over his sunglasses at her. Kori giggled as she stood beside him and laughed softly before sobering. "So I guess this is goodbye then." He added. "Not yet." She told him and went back to the car. "Let's have some fun, for old time's sake." She winked. "Ahhh. By fun you mean…" "Not on the first date." She joked. "Worth a shot." He shrugged as he walked back to the car. "Don't flatter yourself." She said before closing the car door. The Lambo started up once more and sped off into the night. You got a fast car Anyplace is better You got a fast car You see my old man's got a problem You got a fast car I remember we were driving driving in your car You got a fast car I remember we were driving driving in your car You got a fast car I remember we were driving driving in your car You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we'll make something
But me myself I got nothing to prove
And I got a plan to get us out of here
I been working at the convenience store
Managed to save just a little bit of money
We won't have to drive too far
Just 'cross the border and into the city
You and I can both get jobs
And finally see what it means to be living
He live with the bottle that's the way it is
He says his body's too old for working
I say his body's too young to look like his
My mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody's got to take care of him
So I quit school and that's what I did
But is it fast enough so we can fly away
We gotta make a decision
We leave tonight or live and die this way
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
And I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone
And we go cruising to entertain ourselves
You still ain't got a job
And I work in a market as a checkout girl
I know things will get better
You'll find work and I'll get promoted
We'll move out of the shelter
Buy a big house and live in the suburbs
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
And I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone
And I got a job that pays all our bills
You stay out drinking late at the bar
See more of your friends than you do of your kids
I'd always hoped for better
Thought maybe together you and me would find it
I got no plans I ain't going nowhere
So take your fast car and keep on driving
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
And I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone
But is it fast enough so you can fly away
You gotta make a decision
You leave tonight or live and die this way
Author's Note: When I finished writing this story I thought the ending was a little too depressing or even self-defeating. But you know I realize that its not meant to be a happy song. Usually when I do songfics I try to have it reflect the song and even have the lyrics become part of the plot. I'm still kind of iffy on the overall ending but I thought the Rich/Kori was pretty good. I'll let you guys decide on that. The song is by Tracy Chapman, I've always been fond of the song and as I stated wanted to do a songfic about it for the longest while. Hopefully it was worth it. Let me know what you think.
Plese review,
Green Gallant