Rebel Heart
Chapter 7: Conversing over Coffee

Allana couldn't sleep. She'd given up an hour ago, taken down her hair, so that the white-blonde shade fell down her back ni a soft wave - after she showered. Her red streaks were visible, and she had left it at that, opting instead to try and get back to sleep. She'd crawled back into Vince's bed, feeling a pang of guilt again for taking the room and him ending up eith the couch. She stared at the ceiling for nearly five minutes before she stood, pulled on a sweatshirt and moved downstairs. She tip-toed through the living room, trying not to wake Vince and into the kitchen. She flipped the light above the stove on and moved around, putting coffee on. She sighed and sat down in a nearby chair to wait, suddenly realizing that coffee was a bad thing to drink when one was trying to get to sleep.

Time passed without her knowing and suddenly there was a timer being turned off and the shuffling of feet across the lenolium. Allana looked up blearily into Vince's amused gray eyes and smiled sheepishly. He set a cup down in front of her and took a seat across from her, "What are you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep," she replied, "And what are you doing up? Was it me?"

"Nuh-uh, I'm a bit of an insomniac sometimes." Vince said. He reached out and ran his fingers through her hair, "You look better without the braids."

"Really?"

"Yep."

Allana smiled, he eyes landing in his right arm, "What happened?"

Vince followed her gaze and groaned slightly, "About a year and a half ago the team needed extra money, so we started hijacking semis. We were going on one last job when it all went wrong. Three months before that we'd met this guy named Brian, who was really a cop and broke Mia's heart, pissed me off. Anyway, the night of the last job was at Race Wars. Jesse had bet slips against Johnny Tran, a notorious thug. He lost, and took off. Mia begged Dom not to go, and Letty, Leon and I agreed. It didn't feel right without Jesse. So, we got into the cars, and surrounded the semi like normal. I took out the window and harpponed the seat like normal. I jumped onto the truck and things went bad from there on. The driver had a twelve-gage shot-gun with him. He started firing at me. Dom tried to get me off the truck, but the driver braked and sped up real fast, flinging me around the side, the wire attached to my harness wrapping around my arm since I'd been trying to get it off. I was pretty much dangling by my arm. Letty came up to get me, but the trucker sidelined her, I heard a thud and then nothing. The trucker shot again, getting me in the lower abdomen and Dom's tire all at once."

He paused, taking a drink from his cup, "I remember what happened after that. The Supra - we got rid of it - pulled up, all bright orange and shit. Brian told Mia to take the wheel and jumped onto the truck, getting me loose and pretty much throwing my into the car. He jumped after and we spun off the road. Said I went into shock after that - I think I was prayin' to my Momma, can't remember. Woke up in the hospital five days later, missing one kidney, but I still had the arm. I was lucky, Jesse wasn't."

"The rest is a second hand account and all that shit. Anyways, Dom was gonna go lookin' for Jesse when Brian pulled up. They were fighting when Jesse pulled up with the Jetta, screaming - begging for help. Johnny and Lance came by, shooting the house to hell, getting Jesse twice in the chest. Brian went after them, followed by Dom, Mia called an ambulance. Jesse nearly died, Letty cracked a couple ribs, the car had rolled three times. Dom dislocated a shoulder. Bloody day."

He looked haunted, Allana could see that, even if he wouldn't look at her. She leaned forward, placing her hand over his and speaking softly, "There are lots of bad days. They can make us weaker or stronger. It's up to you to decide which it made you."

He smiled slightly and looked up, "What's your story?"

Allana leaned back, "Well, I have an older brother, Relecisan Anthony O'Reily, and a baby sister, Kittie. We moved into the neighborhood when I was four, we met Reighn, who was abruptly abducted into the family, she was five. She had a passion for cars, it was her getaway, she's an orphan, had to deal with foster dad's and shit. Anyways, she and Relec taught Kittie and I all about cars. When Rel was nineteen and I was seventeen Dad came home and shot Mom, and then himself. Since Rel was old enough, he got custody of all of us. Anyways, we opened the garage and Kittie and I finished high school. Got my Silvia as a graduation present. Kittie got the Beetle as hers, she'd fallen in love with them. Anyway, we lived for speed. We fixed cars, ruled the southern Arizona and Northern Mexico street racing world. Devra came along about a year after I graduated, she refused to wear shoes - she still doesn't wear them unless she's going in the store. Puck came along after that. A druggie and all that shit. We got him clean and sober and we were Team Avalon."

Allana figited slightly, "About six months ago Puck and Devra came up with a plan. They wanted the team, they wanted the respect that Ray had earned. They blackmailed Relec with Kittie's and my life, forcing him to hotwire her car and drive it down to Mexico so they could sell it.Ray followed of course. I actually helped her butcher our ignition wires so we couldn't follow. When we got back to Tuscon Puck and Devra were pissed, and followed her out here. You know the rest."

"You're not telling me something." Vince said softly.

She smiled, "About three years ago, before all this happened I found Puck snooping through Ray's things. Then a couple weeks later he put acid in her engine, we had to tear it down to the skull and rebuild her, truly sucked. I guess I was expecting it though. Puck and Devra are gonig to try something at Race Wars, but I don't know what. I'm worried about Relec."

Vince gave her a half hug, "It'll all br fine. You'll see."

~ * ~

"Hey?"

"Hmmm?"

"What're these?" Leon traced the tops of curved scars on Reighn's shoulders, and she shivered. She sat up and pulled her shirt over her head, holding to her chest. LEon brushed locks of her hair away and gasped at the sight of her back. It was the design on her car. The angel wings, arching onto her shoulders and ending close on her ribs. An upside down cross connecting the wings, and the words 'Fallen Angel' written in Latin underneath. The upside down cross obviously represented the fallen part, and the wings were of course the angel. Leon traced the scars with his fingertips and she shivered.

"What?"

Reighn sighed sadly, "I'm an orphan Leon. Not a great occupation. My foster father used to beat on me and another foster kid. The cutting was a release I guess. At first it was random lines, but as it got worse we got artistic, and she drew this..."

"Yeah?"

"I drew panther eyes over wings, bo words in her back... He killed her eventually. Then they dragged him and the durrgie he called a wife away. I was eighteen then. I'd stopped cutting by then, because I finally realized that I had Kittie, Allana and Relec. But Jassi didn't. By the time she died the'd drawn two upside down crosses on her arms, don't remember the words though..." Reighn trailed off.

Leon allowed her to pull her shirt back on before pulling her to him and wrapping his arms around her, "You're beautiful Ray."

She smiled, "I love you."

"And I love you." Leon replied softly, kissing her shoulder, "I wanna take you out tomorrow night. Someplace nice."

She laughed softly, "Okay. Pick me up at seven?"

"I wouldn't miss it."

~ * ~

"Jesse?"

Jesse groaned and rolled over, but the persistent poking in his side and whisper of 'Jesse' in his ear caused him to open his eyes and gaze into Kittie's brown ones. Wait? Brown? Oh, must be the contact thing. "What Kittie?"

"I can't sleep Jess."

"Climb in Kittie-Kat."

She climbed into bed next to him and snuggled up to his side. He took a deep breath, vaguely aware of the scent of roses around her, "You okay?"

She shook her head. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to be all alone." She whispered.

Jesse hugged her closer, "You're not."

"Aren't I?"

"No." he replied, "You have me. You have Allana, and Ray. And even Relec, wherever he is."

"I have you?"

"Yep." he replied, then added cheekily, "Always did want a kitten."

She laughed softly, "ADHD and all?"

"Yep. I have that attention... uhh.. disorder..."

"ADD?"

"Yes, that shit." he replied, "So we're kinda like two peas in a pod."

"Two peas in a pod that moved from different pods into the same one?"

The innocent tone in her voice made him want to laugh, "You could put it that way. But we are peas in a pod."

"What about your parents?"

"Never knew my mom. Dad's in jail again. The jackass," Jesse replied. "What about yours?"

"Mom was a druggie. Dad killed her and then committed suicide - I was like, eight or nine or something like that."

"What about the Ritalin thing?"

"I like alienating people," she responded, "Makes life more interesting. Ritalin stops that from happening."

Jesse laughed, "You are a character."

"If I'm a character then you're a character."

"I am?"

"Yeah, 'cause we're both in the same pea pod."

"That sounded really weird, you know that right."

"That's why I said it."