Summary: Ray goes bongless and Jack critiques women's fashion.

Chapter 20

"No herb, Ray?" Geoff asked suspiciously as they hit the streets. It was the day of the heist and Ray had been a bit stiff and standoffish. It wasn't like him not to smoke before a job and it worried Geoff. The others noticed too and stopped walking to look back at Ray.

Ray sighed inwardly. So Ryan wasn't the only one who was observant. He shrugged at his friends. "I dunno. I think…I'm going bongless on this one." He thought for a minute and then glared at the group. "Don't make that a shirt."

"It's already a shirt," Michael joked as the others laughed. Ray's witty sentences and crazed declarations during videos, podcasts, and even some of their jobs had the unfortunate (for Ray) habits of being made into T-Shirts that were sold in the Rooster Teeth store.

Michael headed off to get the AH mobile while the Crew got up to their street side antics. It was almost tradition at this point. This time, Jack decided to move his car and ended up nearly slamming into the hapless Ryan, who somehow back flipped away and accidentally dropped a sticky bomb in the middle of the street. Geoff knocked Gavin over with his own bumper as he moved his truck and Gavin ran playfully at Ray, missed his dodge, and ended up accidentally punching Ray in the head.

"There's the Achievement Hunter Mobile," Ray said gratefully, rubbing his now sore head as Michael pulled up. The Crew piled in, Jack accidentally knocking Geoff off of the back of the car while he got in. Once everyone was finally in the car, or hanging off the side, Michael took off, following Ray's directions to a nearby store.

"Remember, middle names from here on out," Geoff remarked over the chatter as they drove. "Everyone refer to me as Lazer."

"I'm TAFKAR," Ray added.

"My name is David," Gavin said.

"Shannon!" Jack said dramatically.

"Ryan is Ryan technically," Gavin said, referring to the fact that Ryan's real name was James and his middle name was Ryan.

"Nah it's gonna be James," Ray said. "Let's not be bitches about it." Ryan just laughed.

"I'm going to call him Ryan," Gavin muttered grumpily.

"Then you'll be BitchFace McGillicuddy.," Ray shot back.

"Just shoot him in the head," Michael said to Ray, as Gavin sputtered indignantly.

"No, fuck that. W.A.F.F.L.E.-O.," Ray replied. "We're all friends, friends love each other." He paused and added grumpily. "Two words, 'each other.'"

"W.A.F.F.L.E.-O forever!" Ryan added with a grin.

"Shouldn't there be a comma in there?" Gavin asked.

Ray resisted the temptation to roll down the window and elbow Gavin in the crotch. "You want to put a comma in my fucking acronym?"

Gavin opened his mouth to argue, but Michael, tired of their bickering already, talked over him. "So this is the last heist huh?" Instantly he regretted the words as a heavy silence fell.

He had addressed the elephant in the room. It was their last heist, their last chance. If they failed this was it. Everything hinged on the pan, hence why Ray had tried to make it simple. Everyone had laughed and joked and listened to Ray's plan with grins and sarcasm, what they didn't do was reveal how afraid they were.

Ray didn't tell the others how he had gone home last night and called his family out of the blue, just to make sure he got to talk to them one last time, just in case things went bad.

Michael didn't reveal that he and Lindsay had an emotional sort of goodbye last night and that they had both been afraid of what today would bring.

Jack didn't talk about a similar goodbye he had with his wife or the fact that he visited his parents as well, just to reassure himself that there was a good memory to end on.

Gavin had gone immediately into the studio after the bathroom meeting, approached The Know set, and snogged the life out of Meg Turney, who he had been harboring a crazy crush on for the longest time. He used his fear at what lay ahead to motivate himself. Ever the optimist, Gavin asked her on a date and she agreed.

Ryan had gone home and spent time with his wife and kids. He hugged his children close and his wife and made sure they knew he loved them. He had to make sure they knew that the only way that he wouldn't come back to them was if he had no other choice.

Geoff had spent half the night fighting for a back-up plan with Matt and Burnie and the other half with Griffon and Millie, cementing their getaway plan should they fail but Geoff survived. Geoff wasn't sure if Matt would allow them one final chance if Ray's plan failed. He wasn't even sure if one final chance would save them. But what choice did he have?

"There is a good chance," Geoff said honestly. "A very good chance that Matt will give us one final shot, an opportunity to learn from these mistakes." The group was silent. "Some good has come from all of this, you know. We work more cohesively, our street cred has risen astronomically, we have netted some profit, and Matt is slightly less furious with us than he was a year ago."

"Has it really been a year?" Jack asked wearily.

"Almost," Geoff replied. "Look, all I am saying is that this may not be the end so let's keep the faith, yeah?"

The Fake AH Crew all agreed, but no one could shake the feeling that the end was coming.

They pulled up to Ponsonby's, the finest place for well…finery. Ray engage the sales clerk who took the boys in the back and showed them the line-up of different full suit sets and left them to browse.

"Um," Jack said awkwardly, squinting to read the label on the first…suit he had found. "How about The Chica?" he held up a suit bag that had a pair of ladies Chinos and a thin white halter top. The others laughed.

"I'm kind of liking the red suit," Ray said, showing off a blood red suit with white shirt that reminded them all strongly of a traffic light.

"How about the Smooth White suit?" Geoff said, yanking out a solid white suit with white shirt and tie.

"That's not bad, but smooth black is better," Michael said, showing a much more contrasting, and to his mind fashionable, black suit.

"I like the gray," Ryan said, shrugging into a gray jacket and moving his arms around to check the fit.

"What the fuck?" Jack yelled. "What the fuck is this?" He held up yet another ladies' suit labeled "The Aviator." It contained aviator shades, a brown top hat, crap-brown capri pants, a maroon red vest with oddly-colored gray shirt and some kind of green polka dot scarf tie thing. The others laughed uproariously as Jack rolled his eyes and threw the suit back on the rack. "Am I on the wrong rack or something?!"

As one, the entire Crew looked up at the sign over Jack's head that said very clearly "Women's Suits." They all looked back down at Jack and said in perfect unison. "Nope."

Jack looked up at the sign and then flipped off his gang mates. "Fuck you guys!"

They cracked up yet again and Ray's eye was caught by another suit. Instantly he knew this was the one. "Ooh, guys I got it." He held up a white suit with black lapels and trim and buttons. The shirt was white, it was made to be worn without a tie and even came with black shoes and a black belt. "Sharp White!"

The others nodded approvingly and set about finding their sizes. Once they were all dressed they departed for the mask store.

"We look like the Hives," Ray said approvingly as they drove, looking around at his identically dressed friends.

"We look fucking classy," Michael added.

"We look like we are going to play the dance in Back to the Future," Ryan mumbled. "Midnight Under the Sea."

"Enchantment Under the Sea," Jack corrected scathingly as the others scowled at Ryan's mistake. "Come on, Ryan." Ryan hung his head in shame.

Back to the Future is sacred. You don't get that shit wrong.

They moved on to the mask store, Ryan driving this time while they discussed Ryan's accidental bail from the jet during the last heist. The spirited discussion distracted Ryan slightly and Ray found himself up close and personal with a street sign that took exception to his close relationship with the AH Mobile. He was ripped off of the car and bounced down the road and then had to dive backward as Ryan backed up and nearly mowed him down. Ray was not happy when they arrived at the mask store and Ryan kept apologizing profusely while complaining that it wasn't his fault the car couldn't corner worth a damn.

"It's not meant for speed, it's meant for style!" Michael snapped as they browsed the mask store. Ray determined that the Carbon mask series would be easiest since there were so many. After being masked up they also hit their usual Amu-Nation. Ray made a joke about how the clerk probably knew them by name which Ryan took as a suggestion of murder.

"Ryan, you're a creepy motherfucker," Geoff said as Ryan finished his murder of the clerk and ran back to the group.

"What do we do now?" Michael asked.

"We split up and find a limo and a Cragobob," Ray said, hopping down from the AH Mobile. "Let's do it."

They split up to do their jobs. As they went their separate ways, Ray caught Geoff giving him a concerned look. Ray knew what it meant. He wasn't acting like himself and Geoff knew it. He was withdrawn, distracted, and not at all the Ray from the other jobs. Something had changed, had been changing and now Geoff was worried about Ray.

"I don't know what's up," Geoff said carefully and not unkindly. "But you gotta get your head in the game. Don't fuck this up. It will cost you more than money, it'll cost your life. Let's avoid that. You hear me?"

Ray rubbed his head wearily. He must not be doing a good job of faking it because that is exactly what Ryan had said to him.

"I won't slip up," Ray said. "My head's in this one."

Geoff paused for a moment and shook his head before heading off into the night. Ray sighed because he couldn't blame Geoff.

He wouldn't have believed himself either.

End Chapter

Author's note: For anyone who may not remember, Jack's GTA V character is a female, hence the little joke in here about him looking at women's suits. That being said, anyone can wear whatever kind of clothes they want because gender is a made up social construct anyway so there.