Clean Slate

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious.

A/N:

Chapter 36 (Wrong Place, Wrong Time)

After sacrificing lunch hour to attend the school's first PTA meeting of the new school year, Trina was back to relaxing in her office at work. She'd done some walking around, helped a couple customers make a transaction, and now wanted to get to work on her paperwork.

She'd stepped out of her office to say hello to Derek when he stopped by on his break to make a transaction of his own, and when she left to return to her office, he was still standing in line.

Sliding back from the desk, she picked up her coffee and spun the chair to face the window. Her eyes were heavy from exhaustion, due to all the paperwork and phone calls she had to make, so it was necessary to take a step back. She also had to calm one of the tellers down and send them home for the day because of a panic attack they were having in regards to the rash of bank robberies that Tori had mentioned again. Another bank had been hit by the same team and was out a couple hundred grand. The only difference is one of the men had been struck down in the last heist by one of the security guards.

It was easy to analyze the methods being used by this group. The entry was often through the front, the men were often in a group of five and were well dressed. One or two men would hold the managers of the bank in room while one of the other three grabbed a hostage and forced the security guards to their knees while the others forced the tellers to open the vault.

"Not in my bank," Trina sipped her coffee and closed her eyes. She was extremely confident her bank would not be hit. Despite being one of the bigger and more populous ones, bank robbers-whether professional or not bore no fright. Her eyes opened and drifted to the street down below. Her nostrils opened with a slow breath as she watched a white car stop at an intersection.

It was a calm, quiet day, and in all the busy work she had, she was able to keep herself distracted from Sasha. She couldn't wait to find how the child enjoyed her first day of school. Above the window was a round mirror, in the mirror she saw her father's portrait and gave him a smile.

For a second she though she saw his stern, passionate gaze shift. A flicker of warning. Raising an eyebrow, she turned around and leaned forward over her desk, clasping her hands together on the surface and locking her jaw tight.

The crack at the bottom of the door showed two small shadows sliding along and stopping in place. The door slowly opened and a man in a full black tuxedo stepped in. His brow was drenched with sweat, his stubble seemed to sparkle with nervous sweat and his hair was completely soaked. His body trembled and his eyes darted from side to side.

Trina exhaled slowly and flattened her hands on the desk. Her left knee moved towards the emergency switch attached to the inside of her desk. "Can I help you, sir?" Her eyes started to narrow as the man reached into his suit. Her heartbeat steadied into a slow beat and her gaze studied his hand, slowly widening as he removed a pistol. "Are you shitting me?"

"T-This is a hold up!" Her mind flashed back to the memories of all the years before and her jaw started to lock up. "Don't try anything funny! Just stand up, walk around the desk and stand in front of me."

"Now this is why I should start locking my office door." She struck the emergency button with her knee and slowly stood up, raising her hands and walking around her desk. She clenched her teeth as his trembling hand focused the gun on her. "I've spent so long…getting away from this…Bastard wouldn't be able to hit me if he fired a single shot."

"Okay! Good! N-Now the assistant manager is in the break room." She rolled her eyes and pressed her lips together, smiling politely at this man. She could feel the fire burning inside her, rage was swirling and adrenaline was beginning to pump through her. She glanced to the picture of Jesse on the bookshelf, then back to her father's portrait. "Start walking that way. Go!"

With her eyes still on her father's portrait, she began to walk past him. Her focus was on her breathing as she inhaled, then exhaled. Her lip curled into a smirk. "Are there five of you? Your other partner up here?"

"No…"

"Want to know who you're pointing your gun at? I don't think you know."

"I don't care!" She felt the nozzle of the gun press against her back. He was trying to get her to be fearful, but she wasn't about to let it happen.

Remembering some of her old moves, she bent forward then twisted her body around. In a second, she reached up to the wide eyed man, grabbing his wrist while pushing her body forward and twisting his arm behind him. He let out a loud scream as her hand clutched his and forced him to position the nozzle against the point where his hairline met his neck. "No!"

"A couple years ago, I would have killed you just now," Trina spoke through clenched teeth. "Bits of your brain would be spilt over my office. I'm not that woman anymore, but if you point a gun at me, then you'd better damn well know who in the fuck you're up against."

"Oh god!"

"I thought you were professional bank robbers. You're more nervous than a squirrel caught in the middle of a pack of wolves."

"I'm a new recruit. They're replacing me because of the guy that got shot! I swear!" She huffed and slanted her eyes more.

"Okay. You're going to tell me everything I want to know. Who the hell are you, who do you work for?"

"Italian Mafia, we're on orders from R.K. Our Don. The mafia needs money, crime has gone down too much and we're out of options."

"R.K? Who is R.K.?" His arm began to tense, and stretch lines were forming at his shoulder joint. "Want me to relieve the stress on your arm, tell me who your leader is?" If she could get this information, she could tell Tori. They'd have something to finally tear down the Italians with.

"I don't know Ralph something or other." Her heart stopped and the air grew heavy around her. She pushed the nozzle into his neck and he cried out again. "Oh my god please!"

"Last name! Give me a last name!"

"I don't know, I think its Klein."

"Shit." She clenched her eyes shut and let out a deathly growl that caused the man to whimper. "I thought he was dead. How long has he been Don? Who are the other leaders in your organization?"

"The underboss was just shot down by the FBI, there's only one Capo left. Are you going to let me go now?"

"Unload the gun." She loosened the grip on his arm and he quickly pulled his hand away, sweeping his tears. "Unload the gun and don't try anything funny!" He instantly obliged. Trina watched in anger as the shells and bullets fell to the floor. She couldn't believe Ralph really was alive, but that was out of her control for the moment. "If they wanted to take my bank, they should have sent a professional after me, not a fucking coward."

He looked up with a whimper and she brought her hand sweeping through the air, striking him hard on the left temple. After he collapsed on the ground, she stepped over him and ran to the break room where she found the assistant manager bound and gagged.

She instantly worked the ropes and gag, "I got you, you're fine." When finished, she flung the hair over her shoulder and pointed to the fallen robber. "Tie him up and stand watch. Okay?"

"W-What are you going to do?" The man asked frantically.

"I'm going to protect my bank."

"What? How? They're professional robbers!"

"Trust me. I know a thing or two about self-defense. Let's just say I've been a soldier through war once." She stood up and walked into the assistant manager's office, grabbing a golf club from the man's bag. "I'll have to borrow one of these, I'll get it back to you before your golf tournament." The man nodded slowly and scrambled to the fallen robber.

She hurried to the steps and crouched down in cover of the railing. Sirens could be heard outside, while on the inside there was a large group of people face down on the floor. Men, women, children all weeping as four burglars stood around. There were two at the vault where the security officers lay unconscious. The third burglar was on the phone, communicating with the police. Then there was the fourth burglar, standing behind the other burglars with his back turned. He had a hostage standing at gunpoint while Rebecca tearfully worked under pressure to recall the combination of the vault.

Upon closer inspection, she caught a glimpse of who the standing hostage was. Derek. Her breath caught in her throat and her hand slowly clenched around the handle of the golf club as images of Sinjin and Jesse bleeding in her arms poisoned her.

"No," she whispered, "No. Not this time. You aren't taking him…" The man on the phone was unarmed, the men at the vault were not focusing on anything or anyone else, and there was plenty of cover for her.

She made her way down the stairs and hid behind a nearby pillar, analyzing each man carefully. With each shout from the robbers, with each step she made, her calmness was withering and her fear of losing Derek to these men was only growing.

She had to remain cautious, however. So Trina inched slowly towards the man, clutching the club and determining where to strike. As much as she wanted to kill this man-to bash his head in-she knew better.

"You don't want to do this," She heard Derek utter, "Is it really worth it?"

"Shut up!" The man proclaimed.

"I need to get back to work. I've got things to do and people to see." Derek exhaled slowly and closed his eyes, chuckling vainly. "I can't really beg about having a wife and kid, but to be fair-"

"I honestly don't care." With that the burglar lowered his handgun. Seeing opportunity, Trina reached forward, locking her arm and club around the robber's neck. The man gagged as her free hand clutched his wrist and moved his hand to his jaw, pointing the gun into his jawline. "Wha-"

"Not a word out of you," Trina growled. Her eyes shot out to the man on the phone. He was husky and muscular, his eyes were now wide and locked onto her. With a huff, she began to push the man forward.

Trina slowly pressed on the man's hand, forcing him to drop his gun, then she kicked it away. She leaned back, grasping the iron club with both hands and pressing it hard against the man's neck. Derek watched her with a crooked smile. "Don't you ever point a gun at him again, do I make myself clear?"

The two burglars at the vault started to turn towards her, but in that instance, Derek ducked back and slammed his elbow backwards into the neck of one of the men. That man collapsed to the ground and Trina released her hostage, flinging herself forward as the third robber pointed a gun to Derek.

Thinking fast, she swung the club, striking the man beneath the wrist. She heard a crack as the gun fired and flew from his hand. Her heart stopped and she looked over with wide eyes and a whimper. To her relief, Derek was still standing.

He'd lunged to the side and was now looking over his shoulder. The very tip of his shirt had been grazed on the shoulder by the bullet, which was now positioned in the wall of the bank. "Shit, that was close," Derek muttered. Behind him, she thought she saw a flicker of an apparition that appeared to be Jesse, as if he were watching over her or watching over Derek for some reason.

Trina felt the tears welling up in her eyes, then clenched her fists while glaring ferociously at the robber now clutching his wrist. "Shit! I thought we sent Dylan to take care of the managers!" Her blood was boiling now and it was beginning to grow harder to resist killing this man for nearly shooting Derek. She still managed to keep her control, as hard as it was.

"Well 'Dylan' wasn't trained enough to handle me. You picked the wrong bank and the wrong person to try and rob!" She struck him in the abdomen with a strong side kick, causing him to double over in pain. She then followed up by bringing the club swiftly down onto his back. "And you can tell 'Ralph' his days of ordering you thugs to rob banks is over!" How she kept her control, she wasn't sure. Her mind eye kept visualizing Beck and Ross, standing over their targets, and her stomach was continually flipping inside of her, churning out bile.

As she was focusing on him, she failed to see the final robber approaching her. When she did catch him in the corner of her eyes, he was too close to respond to. His fist came slamming towards her, but instead of colliding, Derek managed to shove him out of the way.

Trina watched him box with the burglar, striking him in the jaw, then the chest. She took a deep breath and walked over to the phone once the robber was subdued, then picked it up. "Hello, officer? This is the manager…" The people in the bank started to stand with the employees, all in awe of Trina's actions. "I've taken out the robbers, you can come in."

Without hesitation, the bank doors flew open and the police headed in with the FBI, all bewildered by the sight. Tori pushed her way through the crowd, gun in hand, and stared at Trina with her jaw agape.

"What the hell happened?"

"They sent their weakest person to tie me up," Trina grumbled and made her way to the door. She had a headache, and her mind was filled with too many emotions. She couldn't say anything to Derek, she didn't know what to say to him. "That one is upstairs being watched over by the assistant manager…" She stopped beside her sister and closed her eyes. "Oh, and by the way. Not only is Ralph still alive…" Tori gasped softly. "He's apparently in charge of the entire Italian Mafia." The very gang all the other gangs in the country had looked up to. Anything said by the Mafia was followed and revered by every gang in the nation. "I'm going home now. I'll give my statement or whatever, but then I'm going home…I need to think for a bit."

Well the bank robbery was stopped, looks like the serial robberies are over. Yeah, they picked the wrong bank to burglarize.