*pokes head out* yes I promise I'm still working on this. Sorry about the really long gap between updates (again). Can't promise I'll get any better since this semester is super busy. BUT there is an actual bank robbery in this chapter! I've been telling you it's a bank robber au and look! they're actually robbing a bank now! Hope you enjoy! (Also there's a Leverage reference in here if you watch that show. It was definitely part of the inspiration for this fic) Thanks so much for sticking with me, everyone!
They got right down to work, diving into the information he'd attainted and trying to devise a plan of attack. John focused on the security systems while Rose was acquainting herself with the blueprints and combining all of the information at her disposal.
Since John understood the basics of how Rose's system worked now, he helped organize all of the printed material as they formulated a variety of different plans. Despite all of the arguments they'd had over the course of the day, John and Rose worked together smoothly, both having completely engrossed in the puzzle of breaking the bank. They bounced ideas off one another, debating the best ways to get past certain security measures and who would be tackling the different parts of the heist.
The only information that was kept on the on-site servers that they would need was the list of which safety deposit boxes belonged to whom. John had thought that would be in the information that he had hacked but they kept that information on a separate server that was located in the bank, on-site access only.
Rose would be going into the vault since part of the security was a pressure sensitive floor that she assured John she could handle as long as he could help get her past the security on the vault door. John would tackle the on-site servers while she dismantled the pressure sensitivity in the vault so he could safely enter and then they'd take on the safety deposit boxes together since they all required two keys and simultaneous lock picking.
When Rose started yawning again, they decided to part ways for the night after some teasing from John about her needing so much sleep. That aside, John and Rose were both happy with the plan they had put together. They may not have been bank robbers before the start of this job but they were each secretly starting to believe that if the two of them could manage to work together without killing one another, they very well could accomplish anything, bank robbing included.
Eighteen hours after she left John's flat, Rose strolled into an empty office overlooking the target bank, duffel bag slung over her shoulder. It was half an hour past midnight and they were supposed to be meeting in fifteen minutes. Tonight was the night and Rose could already feel the adrenaline pumping as she started laying out some of her equipment. For once, she'd made it to a meeting before John and she was already planning on gloating about it.
"'Bout time you got here," she tossed over her shoulder when she heard the tell-tale sound of work boots on the floor behind her a couple minutes later.
John grunted. "You specifically got here early just to try and beat me, didn't you?"
"Maybe." Rose turned to face him, tongue perched between her teeth as she smiled at him. "You ready for this?"
The corner of his mouth twitched up. "As I'll ever be. You got everything ready?"
Rose slipped a black cap on, tucking her braid inside. "Yeah. Want to use the coms again? We shouldn't be split up as much this time but they could still be useful."
"Might as well," he acquiesced.
She watched as he inserted the device in his ear, sweeping her eyes up and down his body. He was dressed exactly like he always was. Black jumper, black trousers, and those battered work boots. He had also added his own black hat to the ensemble, which was the only different piece. He'd shed the leather jacket for the job but Rose was willing to bet that it was folded up in the bottom of his bag so he had it for afterwards. John was very attached to that jacket and she had to admit that it suited him.
He glanced up just as she finished looking him over and smirked, letting her know that she'd been caught and made sure she was looking as he dragged his eyes over her, lingering on how her skintight clothes clung to her curves.
Rose was sure he was going to say something about this whole exchange, about this tension finally, but he just shot her a wicked little grin before turning back towards the door. "Grab your gear and let's go steal a USB drive."
She followed him out, slinging her bag over her shoulder again. "You make it sound so simple. 'Let's go steal a USB drive,'" she mocked in an awful attempt at mimicking his accent.
He winced. "Please tell me you have other accents that you use for your cons."
"Well, yeah," she said, "just never quite managed to get the hang of Northern or Scottish accents. I can do a pretty decent range of American accents and a French one."
They came to a stop right before exiting the building and looked at each other, brown eyes meeting blue.
"Remember the plan?" John asked.
"Yeah, you?"
"'Course, impressive, remember?"
"So you keep telling me. Haven't seen any evidence of that yet," Rose replied with a wink. She could hardly keep from grinning. John seemed to be in such a better mood than he'd been during the Agency job. She had no idea why but she was hoping he wouldn't completely clam up on her once they were inside.
"Just you wait, Rose Tyler," his voice dropped as he caressed the words, delighting in how it caused his partner to shiver. He was going to have to tone it down once they were actually in the bank but this was likely the last night he'd see her and he figured he might as well make the most of it.
"Coms on," she said, trying to will her voice not to betray the fact that he had practically melted her with that comment.
"Coms on," John confirmed. "Let's go."
He had the door partway open and was about to start the dash to the bank when Rose put a hand on his arm to stop him. John shot her a questioning look but she just rose up on her tiptoes, quick as lightning, and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
"For luck," she explained with a soft smile. "See ya at the bank!" With that, she took off running to the back of the bank where their entrance point was located.
John shook his head, trying to suppress the little smile that had crept onto his face. It was just like her to practically reenact their previous job. Although, running off and around a corner wasn't quite as dramatic as leaping down a ventilation shaft.
Within a few seconds, John had joined her at the back door and immediately started dismantling the keypad that controlled the lock. The camera back here was broken and there were no CCTV cameras for a block and a half in this alley so they didn't have to account for that.
John held the last two wires he needed to connect to let them in and looked at his partner. "Fifteen minutes from when I touch these together. In and out and away from here."
"I know," the thief replied, taking a deep breath. "Let's get this started."
John pressed the wires together and the lock clicked. Rose was inside in a flash, John right behind her.
She made straight for the vault, pulling out the equipment she would need to get inside, a mixture of tools he'd taught her how to use the day before and her normal tools of the trade.
He went for the security room. They kept one secure database on site that held the information about who had which safety deposit box as well as the footage from the security cameras. It was child's play to get past the minimal security on the terminal that held the info and he had a list printed in less than five minutes and was working on wiping the security cameras for the entire night. It was an inelegant solution but an effective one and time was of the essence if they wanted to get out without alerting anyone.
"Rose, I've got the list and took care of the cameras. What's your status?"
"That was fast. Gonna make me question your stamina again?"
John shook his head, and there was the cheeky thief who'd flirted her way through one of the most challenging jobs in her career. He'd been a little concerned about her lack of chatter.
"Status, Rose."
"You're such a bore when you're working," she complained. "Just popped the vault open, going in now."
John set off at a run, reaching the open vault door just in time to see her flipping her way across the room, never putting pressure on the floor for longer than a second. There was a manual cut off switch for the pressure sensitive floor on the other side of the vault in case of emergencies. The bank had a remote that turned it on and off that John could have duped if he'd had more time but they had to get the USB before Jack left the country.
Rose landed on her feet, hit the switch, and turned to smile at him. "I was on the gymnastics team when I was little. I got the bronze." She waited a beat before continuing, "And in case you were wondering, I'm still very flexible."
"We have work to do," he reminded her, hoping she didn't notice that the tips of his ears were flushing. "Just under ten minutes until the temporary hold on the door security gives out."
Rose started loading both of their bags with the cash stored in one of the rooms of the vault. "Have you looked at the list and figured out with boxes we should hit?"
John scanned the names, noting quite a few among London's criminal elite. Apparently, they figured if the Agency was using this vault, it must be safe.
There.
"Got it," John called out. "Someone at the Agency used an alias I recognize and it would figure that he's behind all of this. His fingerprints were all over the increased online security."
Rose appeared behind him and peered over her shoulder at the name his finger had stopped on. Didn't ring any bells for her but John seemed confident so she dropped her bag of cash and pulled her set of lock picks out. John had his in hand as well and they immediately set to work on the safety deposit box that was registered to one Harold Saxon.
They had it open in under a minute and were rewarded with a USB drive.
Jackpot.
"You sure this is the right one, yeah?" Rose asked.
"98% sure. I recognize some of these other names but they aren't affiliated with the Agency and I don't think they or the Agency would risk using a name that could cause trouble."
Rose looked at him warily. "You said this whole thing could be a trap. Wouldn't they use a name you would recognize like this Saxon bloke if it were a trap?"
"They wouldn't know that I'm aware of that particular alias. It's one of his few completely clean ones and he's very protective of it, doesn't know I know it exists. This is the first time I've heard of him using it on something that could be traced. Can we get out of here now?"
Rose's mind was whirling with questions about how he knew so much about the Agency. Every time he divulged a piece of information, ten more questions came up. But now wasn't the time to ask them. She knew he was desperate to change the subject away from the Agency and so she let him. Rose had something she wanted to show him anyways.
"Not quite," she said, dipping down to snag something out of the pocket on the outside of her bag. "Thought we could throw the Agency off our trail a bit by signing our work."
She held out a business card to him.
On one side there was a police box like the one they'd met at after the Agency job, underneath that were the words "Team TARDIS." John flipped the card over and saw the back had "The Doctor" and "Bad Wolf," flowed across the paper in stark black ink.
"TARDIS?" John questioned.
Rose gave him one of her tongue-in-teeth smiles. "'There Are Reasons Dishonesty Is Stupid.' You told me I should put it on a card, so I did."
"Cheeky. What about the names? Where did you get 'Bad Wolf' from?"
"You told me I looked like a wolf about to rip your throat out yesterday. I don't think I'd make a very good wolf." The feral gleam in her eyes and a ruthless, lupine smile belied her words.
John couldn't help it; he chuckled as he turned the card over again.
"Don't like the idea?" Rose guessed.
"I think it's brilliant. The coppers will be scratching their heads trying to figure it out for weeks and so will the Agency. Fantastic distraction technique."
Knowing they were running out of time, Rose and John quickly vacated the vault, closing it and taping the card to the outside of the vault door. That done, they slipped out the back with thirty seconds to spare.
John and Rose locked eyes, both humming with adrenaline at another successful job. He slipped his hand in hers.
"Run," he whispered, lips brushing against her ear.
Together they took off through the back alleys of London, distancing themselves from the scene of the crime.
A few blocks away they skidded to a stop, breathing hard and grinning for all they were worth. Rose leaned back against the brick wall, tugging him closer with their still entwined hands.
John could feel the blood pumping through his veins, could feel the heady rush of adrenaline and success going to his head as he looked down at his partner. And oh, he could also feel the gravity that was pulling him towards the blonde thief, the pull that had been there since the night they'd met and just kept getting stronger.
Rose was smiling up at him, eyes dark, challenge inherent in the tilt of her chin.
He was never one to turn down a challenge.
John took a step forward, leaned down and captured her lips. Rose was ready for him, responding immediately. She opened her mouth, swiping her tongue across his bottom lip. He growled in response, and chased her tongue back into her mouth. Her hands clutched at his shoulders, feeling the hard muscles concealed by his jumper. He had one hand tangled in her hair after he rid her of her hat, and the other grasping her hip.
Rose was glad she had the wall at her back holding her up as John seemed to do his best to steal the air from her lungs. It was like the kiss from the Agency job, all heat and teeth and tongues, but better. From the way he was finding every spot, every technique that made her melt, it seemed like John had spent that year between jobs dreaming about doing this again as well.
Rose was by no means a passive participant. She maneuvered until their tongues were back in his mouth and she could do some exploring of her own. When she fluttered her tongue against the roof of his mouth he groaned, pressing his hips into hers. Rose slid her hands down his back until she was cupping his arse. She pulled him closer and then rubbed her body against his.
John pulled back from the kiss with a gasp, breathing hard. Rose was doing the same, looking about as shell-shocked as he felt. He debated with himself for half a second before diving back down to meet her lips once more. The hand he'd had on her hip insinuated itself between their bodies to palm one of her breasts.
When Rose broke away to catch her breath, John moved his mouth to her neck, sucking and nipping a line from her ear to her collarbone, where he set about making a mark. By the time he released her with a pop, Rose was panting.
John couldn't suppress a smirk as he looked down at the woman in his arms. She looked well-kissed and disheveled and all he wanted to do was snog the breath out of her again.
Rose seemed to be off the same mind. "You better not be planning on leaving me like this again," she warned.
He chuckled darkly. "Not a chance. But we are supposed to meet Jack in twenty minutes."
"There's a lot we could do in twenty minutes," Rose countered, slipping her hand between them to cup him through his trousers.
He hissed, bucking his hips forward into her hand. Rose thought she had won but John shook his head.
"No, I'm going to take my time with you, Rose Tyler." He leaned closer, lips brushing her ear as he spoke. "I have plans for us tonight and they include a bed, not some dirty alley."
Rose shivered and stepped away from him. She needed some distance if he expected her not to jump him right here. "Well then, let's go drop off the USB with Jack and then get to puttin' those plans into effect. I'm still waiting for you to prove how impressive you are." She flicked her eyes down to linger on the bulge in his trousers where he was still obviously hard.
John cleared his throat and picked up the bag he'd dropped to the ground earlier. As Rose did the same, his mind was racing forward to how the night was going to continue when they made it back to his flat. Flashes of the dreams and fantasies he'd had over the past year flickered though his brain, ramping up the anticipation to an almost unbearable level.
Hopefully Jack would be at the rendez-vous early.
