A/N - I saw so many times in 'Tomb Raider' where Lara would turn to crime, just to live. I'm just writing an alternate short story collection of Lara Croft turning to crime as a burglar (and a robber, perhaps?) exploring it in greater detail compared to my previous work.

Please let me know what you think.

Lara.

The Wardrobe.

Her heart was thumping in her chest she watched Chantelle and John open the door into the flat even though she was very tired after being woken up only an hour ago.

This was the wrong time for a burglary, although burglaries could take place at any moment. Lara, Ash, and Monkey (so named because of his monkey-like agility, although it wasn't really needed in the real world), and Hex were standing outside in the cool early summer morning waiting for the door to be opened up by Chantelle and John.

They'd been aware the owner of the flat had gone away on business - really, people made it so unbelievably easy to attract burglars, it was not funny; if there was one thing, just one thing Lara had learnt since she'd fallen into this gang when she had been hard-pressed for cash and the others had been impressed with her guts despite her obvious higher class background after she had run away following her father's death, it was people were just incredibly stupid.

But for now, they had a job going, and there was no time for them to lose. They had needed to break into the flat before he came back.

Breaking into the flat wasn't too difficult. They had opted to do it in the daytime in the early hours, there would be fewer people around. It was better than breaking in during the day or at night, although nobody really cared.

John turned and grinned when the door opened. "We're in!"

Lara sighed. She liked John, she really did, but she wished he'd get on with it. "Okay, let's do this. If we get this done fast, we can get something good for breakfast!"

"You paying?" Lisa grinned.

Lara snorted. "Get off!"

"Well, you suggested it!"

"Can we do this?"

Lara chuckled and followed the others inside, donning her gloves as she walked in. Her feet nudged a couple of letters piled on the ground, and she bent down and picked up a few. Spotting a bank statement, Lara opened it up and curiously took a look at it. "I think this is going to be a good one," she whispered to the others.

"Why?"

"This is a bank statement. This guy has spent £2,000 in the last week."

"Fuck!"

"Just think what this guy has in here," Lara could barely see anything in the dark, but she could see Chantelle's eyes gleam. At that point, John came back.

"The flat's empty," he said.

"Good. How long do you think we'll need?" Ash asked.

John checked his watch and Lara saw the face light up briefly as John checked the time. "20 minutes. Ash, can you bring the van in closer?"

"Sure, no problem. John, do you think we should hurry this up; I don't like the thought of us being here too long?" Ash said.

"Why?" Lara asked.

Ash sighed. "It's just…after we were nearly arrested last week, I don't like the thought of using that van again so soon."

Lara had to admit Ash had a point. Lara and her gang of burglars had been breaking and entering houses and flats in the greater London area for weeks now, and they hadn't been caught since. But they had come dangerously close when a police car had driven close to a house they were emptying. The coppers hadn't cottoned on to what was going on, but it was a near thing and ever since then Ash had seen it as a sign their luck was running low.

John sighed and rubbed his stubble. "Okay. We'll be as quick as we can… I'll come with you to keep a lookout for the police or anyone else who'll be coming."

Ash let out a sigh of relief. They all needed a holiday, Lara decided. "Thanks, mate."

"Lara, Chantelle, Monkey, Flip, can you empty the flat?"

"We'd be down a couple of people, but we'll be okay," Flip pointed out, even though they regularly had someone waiting in the van anyway to keep an eye out, but since Ash was nervous recently it made sense John would want to stay with him.

"Right, come on, the sooner we get this lot out of here, we can go," Lara said practically as she lifted her sports bag.

There was enough ambient light streaming in through the windows for Lara and the others to get a good look inside the place, and what they saw showed the owner of the flat was quite well off. As she took a moment, spotting the expensive plasma TV and DVD player, Lara and the others knew they were going to make a fortune. Hopefully.

Lara and Flip worked on the living room. They didn't have any problems unplugging the expensive electronic gear and they put them into sports bags. Once Lara and Flip joined Monkey outside and placed the bags they'd just filled into the van, she turned to Monkey.

"Are we doing any more jobs?" She asked.

Monkey paused and thought. "I dunno. I'm with Ash; we've been breaking into too many places recently, and the more times we do that, the easier it will be for the Old Bill to figure out how we're doing it."

"We can't stop though," Flip lowered his voice. "Our fence gave John a pathetic amount of cash for the last one, that's why we've been gathering so much lately."

"How much did John get?"

Flip sighed. "We only got £2,000 grand."

"What?"

"Half of that stuff was worth more than that; how come John didn't haggle?" Monkey demanded.

"I did."

Lara, Flip and Monkey turned and found John there. Their 'boss' looked irritated. He had obviously heard the conversation and while Lara got the impression he was more peeved they'd stopped for a moment, he was willing to give them an idea of what had happened.

"Lender wouldn't budge when I handed him the stuff. I haggled and argued with him, but he said," John paused to sigh before he started again, "he said we were nicking stuff which nobody really needed."

Now that was a lie if ever she'd heard one. There was always a demand for electronic goods, and Lara wondered to herself why they even had Lender as a fence in the first place. The guy was incredibly greedy, and she knew for sure they weren't the only thieves he fenced for. She had little doubt they were in the same frustrated boat her own gang were in.

"Do you want me to tell the others?" Flip asked.

John sighed. "No, not yet, at least not while we're doing this; I don't want the others thinking this isn't worth it."

"Does Ash know?" Lara felt the question was actually a good one; Ash was the second oldest of the gang next to John, but he preferred a low key role for reasons only he knew.

"No, he doesn't. We need to tell the others about it when we sort this lot out. Anyway, can you guys hurry up? I want us to be done soon."

As Lara followed Flip and Monkey back up to the flat, she could not help but wonder if they were going to have to find a brand new fence at some point. She didn't doubt that was what was going through John's mind, but the question was will a new one be better or worse?

X

As Lara stood and stared with her friends at their bastard fence, she couldn't help but wonder what it said about their lifestyle they had to deal with dickheads like this guy; why was it, every single time they worked with him and gave him everything they stole from the houses they burgled and the last flat they'd burgled only yesterday, he seemed to take more of a cut than they did?

Lara's father had taught her enough about the family business, a business she didn't want to have anything to do with right now, and she wondered if the fence genuinely believed he was running a business in this way; if he was then he was not as good as he thought he was. Judging from the looks of the others, they were thinking about the fender in the same way.

John was arguing with him. Lara was staying exactly where she was; she was as pissed off with the pointless arguments as everyone else, but she had no desire to make things worse.

"£500? Some of this gear is worth more than that!" John was arguing.

The fence didn't budge. Lara had gotten the impression within 2 minutes of hearing him actually speak to them that he wasn't the type of person to take no for an offer for an answer. That made him a perfect businessman in Lara's mind. The fact his voice was as oily only convinced her more this man was in the wrong business.

"John, John," the fence spread out his hands and smiled insincerely, "we have been over this dozens of times. Some of your stuff has competition and demand is low."

Lara exchanged a look deliberately with Chantelle and the others, shaking her head slowly and gently. She saw the same resolution in their eyes. They knew this bastard was lying to them, and from where she could see his face Lara knew John was starting to lose his own patience. Once more she wondered why they were going with this guy.

"Why don't I believe you?" Lara saw Monkey look aghast at John from behind his back. Chantelle was also worried, but Lara saw the lack of surprise or condemnation on Ash's face. Ash may not have known or perhaps he had, it was hard to tell with him, about what kind of trouble they'd been getting from their fence for some time, but Ash could see it wasn't really the end of the world. Lara couldn't see it either; this guy wasn't going to send anyone after them since John and Ash likely knew precisely what he was capable of, and an attack on them was unlikely.

"John-," the fence's voice was falsely upset. "I've got dozens of contacts who tell me they can't shift the stuff you steal; it's not my fault-."

John didn't even bother to say anything to that. He just stood up and he walked out, beckoning his gang to follow after him, ignoring the fence's calls from behind.

"Was that what you had in mind?" Flip asked.

"Pretty much."

Suddenly Lara understood. "You were trying to see if he was worth it, weren't you?"

"Not really. I just wanted to give him one final chance, and he blew it."

While Lara nodded as she saw the logic, Chantelle's voice was tinged with worry and impatience. "What do we do now, John? Without a fence, we can't really ship any of the stuff…"

"I'll have to think about it, but I know one thing, while having a fence made life much easier, we don't really need them," John said, glancing at Ash.

"You've got ideas?"

John shrugged; that was not a good sign. "A few; I don't have a clear idea yet but give me time and I'll come up with a way of shifting the stuff we steal."

Lara went silent. She didn't blame John for becoming frustrated with their fence, she would have done the same thing in his place, but she wondered now if John had just made a mistake. She decided that it was best to just wait and see.