Disclaimer: I don't own FatF

- El glances at chapter Sorry, I couldn't help it. I hope you got my message by the way.

Worthy?

Chapter 3: Birthday Presents

She set the Kid's Cuisen tray down in front of him and sat acrossthe table in an armchair beside Jamie. He glanced between the two of them and smiled slightly, "You two related or something?"

She blinked and glanced at Jamie who was looking at her. She stuck her tongue out and made a rething noise. "Oh please."

"Nah my sister's not as good looking as she is." Jamie said, taking a sip of the beer he was holding.

"Damn right." She said, folding her arms across her stomach. "No offense but, who the hell are you?"

The man had been picking at one of the fish sticks and pulling the bread away from the actual meat. "Oh sorry." He dropped the fish stick and wiped his hand on his jeans. "My name is Gregory Petrovich. Everybody calls me Pete." He held his hand out across the table as if to shake her hand.

She tilted her head up.

"Good luck Pete." Jamie said, taking another drink of his beer. "She won't even let me give her a hug."

"That's cause you cop a feel off of everyone you touch."

Jamie and Pete both started to laugh. "Who taught you to speak English?" Gregory asked with a grin.

"He did." She said, pointing haphazardly at Jamie who nodded. "Of course he barely speaks it anyway."

Pete nodded. "True, except he got the worst half of his vocabulary across rather well." He glanced at Jamie, "Oh, I brought you some birthday presents." He leaned forward in his chair, the food otherwise forgotten, and pulled a handgun similar to Jamie's out of the back of his shirt. "It's got no trace or anything so your clean on it."

"No what?" She asked in a half whisper as Jamie took it off the table and looked at it for a moment, letting it sit on the table next to him.

"Your a week early at any rate." Jamie added, taking one of he fish sticks from the meal. "But thanks anyway."

"It's your birthday next week?" She asked, looking over at him as he nodded to her. She stared at him with a look on her face that betrayed just how little she really knew about her boss and only real friend.

"Oh, and this." Pete reached behind him again and she stiffened slightly until he pulled a somewhat crinkled polaroid out of his pocket. He tossed it onto the table in Jamie's direction, leaning back in his chair with a grin. "I think you'll like that one more."

Jamie reached out and slid the polaroid toward him, grinning at it. "A beater Supra?" He asked, sliding the picture in her direction. "Nauseating orange."

She lifted the polaroid to her face and pulled her legs up in front of her. "It's a little beat up but it's not half bad looking, except those weird stickers." She shifted the picture to get a better view of the decals that ran along the side of the car. "I could do better." She mumbled as she set it back on the table.

"It's yours then." Jamie said, pulling pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and offering them to Pete who waved them away.

"Mine?" She said, sitting a little more upright in her chair. "You're giving me a car?" When he nodded she pointed to Pete who was just grinning at them. "You're giving me his car?" As they sat there a flash of lightning illuminated the ground outside and rain began to fall.

Pete laughed at them. "I just gave it to him, he can do whatever he wants with it." He glanced between the two of them, "You two can bicker like an old married couple if you want though." He ducked slightly as a fish stick flew past his face.

Jamie laughed right along with him as she grabbed the food ad dropped it in the trash can next to her chair. "Don't worry Pete, that means she likes you." He took another drink of the beer as the rain began to pound even harder on the pavement outside. "And yeah, I'm giving it to you. I've got my Evo under there anyway." He pointed to a car covered in a bright blue tarp. She could just see the bottom of the tires under the cover.

"An Evo?" She looked over at him, "Why do you have an Evo?"

"So I can drive places."

She glared at him for a moment and then looked over at Pete, "So where is this beater supra that I could never possibly pay for and want more the life itself?" She said it all very quickly and for a moment neither of the men seemed to understand what she had just said.

Pete and Jamie both laughed as they looked at her. Pete opened his mouth to answer but the words never made it out.

There was a sudden ping and the polaroid on the table exploded into a million tiny shreds of paper. The table top smoked as the hole was burned through it. "Shit!" Jamie jumped out of his chair and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her out of her chair and onto the floor behind the table.

She covered her head and screamed as Jamie put himself between her and the table, putting his arms over her to protect her from what was happening. She didn't hear anything but the sounds of tables and chairs having holes blown into them, furnature stuffing and the occasional piece of fiberglass from the mustang flying everywhere. She was suddenly aware that he was no longer hunched over her and was trying to pull her toward the tarp covered car. As she started after him a tool was sent flying across the floor a few feet behind her and she fell back behind the table again, her hands flying to her head as she screamed again.

The room was full of chair stuffing and pieces of fiberglass, things were falling from the ceiling, the most recognizable of which were the sparks and bits of glass from the lights as bullets shattered the bulbs. Everything was moving and shattering as she felt her arm being pulled again and suddenly she was moving, where to she didn't know. The next thing she knew she was beside the Evo and Jamie was pulling the tarp off, trying to stay down below the tool boxes and cars that were between them and the garage door.

"Pete!" He yelled over the sounds of the tanks near the front of the shop being hit.

There was a strange yelp and then from the place where he had been earlier that night his head appeared over the tanks for just an instant. The tanks were littered with holes and the hissing of the gas was the only thing she could hear until the door to the mustang slammed and the driver's side door opened to reveal Pete wriggling through the opening.

"Pete..." She began, her eyes focused on his foot as he tumbled out of the car. There was a gaping hole in his sneaker and a large part of the skin under the leather seemed to be missing. The brown and black shoe was quickly turning a deep red. "Jamie, he's...!"

She was pulled into the car through the passenger door which she had never heard open. "Pete." The name was loud enough to get the older man's attention and he lifted his arm straight in the air as Jamie threw the car into reverse and expertly swung it around to face him.

She barely knew what happened between the moment the car shifted into gear and the back passenger door being swung open but one thing was clear, Pete wasn't getting into the car by himself. Jamie reached over the back of the seat and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him into the car. Jamie had just managed to shut the door when she finally had he sense to reach over and shift gears as he stepped on the brake.

The car began to roll backward as soon as he turned forward, spinning the wheel and fumbling with the garage door opener until the door finaly began to move upward with a great creek. None of them had noticed the lack of bullets since the tanks had bee hit until, with one last look back into the garage Jamie held out a zipo. She stared at it for a long moment as if unsure of what it did. "Take it."

She looked at him for a moment, "What for?"

"Those are Oxygen tanks, I'm amazed they didn't go off yet..." He was explaining as quickly as he could, his eyes focused on the halfway opened door and the feet he could see on the other side. "When we get out of the way, light it and throw it back..." His voice cracked and he swallowed, "Blow it up."

"But Jamie..."

"Just do it!" His voice seemed to echo back off of every surface in the car.

She stared at him for a moment, and nodded as he slipped the car into neutral and revved the engine slightly. The feet outside shifted slightly as the door finally opened all the way. He threw the car into gear and floored it.

The men outside ran for cover as the Evo screamed out of the garage, her eyes focused on the window as it whined down and finally vanished. She glanced back at Jamie who was turning the car in a wide arch so that she had a clear shot at the tanks. With one last glance at the men that were now clamoring up off the ground.

She stuck her upper body out the window and pulled the zipo up her leg and then pushed it back down, the flame flickering to life just as she whipped it from the car.

The lighter was no more then ten feet from the tanks when it landed and the flame shot suddenly up and out in every direction, and the tanks were engulfed. She starred out the back window as the explosions shook the building and finally dosed the area in flames that seemed to burn independently of one another. It was horrible to see the place she'd loved so much go up in flames as the car turned and sped away.

"Jamie..." She began as the gravity of what precisely they always kept in the back of the garage. "Jamie go faster."

There was a great roar coupled with the sounds of an explosion and a sudden breaking of glass. Blanca's eyes went to Pete who had just broken out he back window with his good foot as they went over the small hill that led to the garage. "What the hell!?" She asked sharply as she looked back at him.

"It's either this or bleed on the leather." Pete said through gritted teeth, that smile that usually accompanied his voice out of place now as he shoved his bleeding foot out the window. "Trust me, I'd rather replace the window." He glanced at the back of Jamie's head as the man stared straight ahead out the windshield. "It's the same place." He mumbled before letting his head fall back against the seat and closing his eyes. "I'm sorry."

Jamie shifted the car again and continued to stare out the windshield, not even aware of them. She stared at him for a long moment and finally set her hand on his arm, smiling a little at him as he glanced over at her. "You look like shit babe."