Summary: Will Matt give the Crew another chance? Will they be able to convince him? Will Burnie have to kill them all? Will Michael pass out? Tune in to find out!

Chapter 22

Ray sped down the hallway of the trauma ward, looking in rooms as he passed, ignoring one or two indignant squawks as he peered in doorways. What the fuck room number did that nurse say Geoff was in? He had been hauled off to be examined for an hour before the doctor deemed him ok to leave and in that time he had forgotten Geoff's room number.

"God damn it Geoff, where are you?" he muttered under his breath.

He rounded the corner and stopped. There was a man in a bloodstained suit sitting in the hallway, hands on his knees and his head down.

"Gavin!"

Gavin's head shot up and he grinned in relief as he saw a bandaged Ray heading toward him. He jumped to his feet and the two exchanged a manly hug before Ray punched Gavin in the shoulder.

"OW! Christ, what did you do that for?" Gavin yelped.

"Top Fun Times?" Ray said disparagingly.

Gavin just grinned. "It worked didn't it?"

"Not really dude. The only reason it worked is because there are a bunch of other people that got hurt in the process." Ray punched his shoulder again. "You suck."

"You suck too."

They grinned tiredly at each other before Ray jerked his head at the closed door to what he guessed was Geoff's room.

"Is he in there?"

Gavin rolled his eyes. "Yeah. He kicked me out because he thinks it's my fault he got shot."

Ray laughed. "So he's gonna be ok?"

Gavin nodded. "He had some internal bleeding they had to fix, but he's all right. He broke his wrist when he fell out of the chopper though. He'll have to be in a brace for six weeks."

"Ryan fractured his leg," Ray said. "He'll be out that long too. Jack too. His nose got reset but he broke three ribs. Michael had to be stitched up in five places."

Gavin swore. "That's a long time between jobs. Think Matt will give us that long?"

"I think we'll be lucky if we even get another chance," Ray said. "We'll have to beg."

"Geoff can't leave til tomorrow and we need to go see Matt as soon as possible," Gavin said. "What do we do?"

"They're not holding any of the others except Michael. But technically they can just leave. What are the nurses gonna do?"

"Strap him down?" Gavin guessed.

Ray laughed. "Maybe. But anyway, Jack says we'll have to go before Matt ourselves. Without Geoff."

"Christ alive," Gavin muttered.

"I'm gonna see if he'll talk to me," Ray said. "The others will be up here soon I'm guessing. Michael is still in the ER if you wanna go find him."

"Cheers Ray," Gavin said before heading off in search of his best friend.

Ray opened the door behind him and stepped into Geoff's room. Geoff was sitting up in his bed, looking up at the ceiling. He was shirtless, his shoulder covered in bandages, his face bruised, and looking all in all like hell. His eyes were closed, but as the door shut behind Ray, Geoff scowled without opening his eyes.

"Fuck off Gavin," he snapped.

"Come on Geoff, my nose is waaaaaaay smaller," Ray said with a crooked smile.

Geoff cracked one eye, looked at Ray then closed it again. "Fuck," he breathed. "Did we get the money? Did you pull it off?"

Ray cringed. "Ah...no. I blew up the money by accident. We only barely escaped with our lives."

Geoff sighed heavily, wincing as his stitches pulled. Another empty hand. Was it even possible that Matt would give them the final job he had promised? Was it even worth it?

"You want out don't you?" Geoff asked Ray.

Ray shifted uncomfortably. He did want out but after everything that had gone down today, he was no longer sure. He wanted the fear gone. He wanted his friends back without the strain Matt forced on him. He wanted to do what he loved-violence and video games-without the pressure.

"I want things to make sense again," Ray replied honestly. "I want us to be who we were before Matt started breathing down our goddamn necks."

Geoff couldn't fault him for that. He wanted the same thing.

"Get Jack and the rest in here, those who can," Geoff said. "Matt was open to one last job, we'll have to see if that holds true."

"You got it boss," Ray said, turning to go.

"Ray," Geoff said before the younger man left. Ray paused and looked back at Geoff who was looking at him more seriously than he ever had before. "If we pull off this last job, we'll be in the clear. And even if we aren't, I promise I'll put us back right, ok?"

Ray looked at him for a moment and nodded. "Sure thing Geoff."

Neither of them liked the "if" in that sentence.

"Are you sure you should be here?" Gavin asked Michael.

"Fuck you," Michael snarled, glaring up at Gavin. He was bent halfway over, clutching his aching torso as he perched on the wall to avoid falling over. He was pale and sweating and wanted more than anything to close his eyes and fall in a heap on the floor but he couldn't. He had to stand firm. He had to have his crew's back.

"20 bucks says he drops before this is over," Ray said.

"I'll take that action," Jack replied, his voice muffled by his taped nose. "He's got that stupid stubbornness, don't forget."

Ryan looked at Michael appraisingly. "I've never seen some turn grey before. 20 on passing out."

"When you've all finished deciding whether he will deck out or not!" Gavin said grumpily. He scowled and the others looked marginally embarrassed. "20 quid says he stays standing."

"Quid better mean dollars," Ray snapped.

"You guys suck," Michael grumbled.

The door in front of them swung open and Burnie Burns stepped into the hallway. To the average person. Burnie looked non-threatening and generally was. He wore a normal nerdy T-shirt, jeans, and glasses. He had a beard and something of a gut and looked like the friendly dad next door, which he was.

He was also the Syndicate's executioner and the most lethal man in Rooster Teeth next to Gus.

"Hey guys," he said. Jack winced. He didn't sound happy but he also didn't sound cold. When he went cold it was time to worry, but this middle ground sounded equally bad. "Matt's ready to see you."

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how dead are we?" Gavin asked. He and Burnie went way back, Gavin having been friends with Burnie for years, since he was a teenager. Only Gavin could get away with directly asking such questions while being on thin ice.

Well the rest could technically, they just feared the answers more than Gavin did.

Burnie rolled his eyes. "Just get in there and don't fuck around ok?"

Jack took a deep breath and walked into the office behind Burnie, the rest of the crew following him. Michael hobbled like a hunchback for a few steps, took a deep breath and straightened, wincing and putting a hand to his side.

As soon as they were all in, Burnie shut the door behind them and they faced their boss.

Matt also had the dad look going, from the bald plate to the wire frame glasses and the cheerful looking face. He was a nice guy, funny and a generous boss. Yet underneath it all was the calculating coldness that made him a shrewd businessman and a feared crime lord. Matt the Rooster Teeth CEO was a great guy. Matt the Syndicate leader was hell on earth.

One look from him told you exactly where you stood and you were either in or out in his eyes. The fact that Jack couldn't figure out which it was this time scared him more than the blood splattered bills that were scattered on Matt's desk.

"I had Kerry retrieve your take from the last job," Matt said, gesturing to the bills. "The sum was disappointing."

Ryan eyeballed the stack of bills. It looked to total roughly one or two thousand. "Better than we thought," he said. He didn't fear Matt, but neither would he flat out tell him to go fuck himself. He knew how to play it.

Matt nodded. "True. Or it would be if I hadn't combined the money from all of your recent jobs to the 20 dollars in confetti Kerry handed over."

Crap.

"Geoff asked for one more chance to prove you aren't a bunch of idiots," Matt said mildly. "But if this is the result of chance after chance-."

"Then you are forgetting your terms."

Everyone looked up at Ray who was glaring down Matt with unexpected ferocity. Matt raised his eyebrows mildly and considered Ray for a minute. The tense silence following Ray's words stretched like a rubber band, ready to snap at any moment.

"What am I forgetting?" Matt finally asked calmly, even interestedly.

"The deal was that we bring in more revenue and up our street cred so we stop making the syndicate look bad. We've accomplished half of that with flying colors."

"I don't deal in halfways," Matt pointed out. The gang except Ray shifted nervously.

"Well then maybe you should get Gus in here and crunch some fucking numbers for you since you clearly don't 'deal,'" Ray threw up sarcastic quotation marks "either. We brought in what last year? Two, three hundred dollars? How much is in front of you? About two grand."

"So six times our take from last year if you count bail money," Jack said, catching on to Ray's point. "Add that to the fact that the police don't laugh at us and people are afraid to go out at night because they are terrified of getting blown up by the Fake AH Crew."

"Look around, we've got this town running scared," Ray said angrily. "So I suggest you back the fuck off of us and let us work because we sure as shit will fail if you keep breathing down our necks like a god damn mother fucking hen."

Out in the hall, Burnie thumped his head against the door. Great. Now he was going to have to shoot Ray. No one talked to Matt like that.

Matt was caught between surprise and annoyance, never a good combination. But Ray's words had embolden the gang. Ray was ready to start swinging and Matt knew the others would be right behind him. He couldn't let Ray get away with such blatant disrespect, but there was wisdom in what he said.

"Matt, Geoff deserves another chance even if we don't," Jack added. "He has never wavered in his commitment to you and the Syndicate or to us. We have tried, but probably not hard enough. Give us one more chance to prove we can do it. We owe Geoff if nothing else and I guarantee you we'll pull through."

Matt considered them all for a moment, looking at each one of them and lingering on Ray for a long moment. Then he sighed heavily.

"You have met half of the deal," Matt said. "You get one chance to meet the other half. I am through playing games with you all: succeed or you're fucked. Do you understand?"

Jack nodded on behalf of the Crew. "Thank you Matt."

"It's for Geoff, not you," Matt said. He looked at Ray. "And you'd probably do well to make sure the entire Crew remembers their place, Jack, before I make their place a fucking grave."

Ray glared at Matt. "I'm not afraid of you."

"You should be," Matt said simply. "Go." He paused and waved an unconcerned hand at them. "And take that mess on the floor with you."

Everyone looked down and saw Michael laying on the ground. That was surprising. No one had even noticed he fainted.

Jack and Ryan grabbed his arms and dragged him out into the hallway, Gavin and Ray behind them. As soon as the door closed behind them, Ryan and Jack dropped him.

"Pay up!" Ryan and Ray said triumphantly to glares from Jack and Gavin.

Unnoticed, Burnie slipped into the office behind them where Matt was staring thoughtfully at the door.

"You gave them another chance," Burnie said. "Smart move."

"You think so?"

Burnie nodded. "They may be idiots, but they are our idiots and they will come through for Geoff if nothing else."

Matt frowned. "Yes. Their support of Geoff is relentless. It's made them bold. Some of them a little too bold."

Burnie shifted uncomfortably. "Ray?"

Matt nodded.

"Do I need to…?" Burnie trailed off. He absolutely did not want to kill Ray. He never wanted to kill anyone. He hated the crime half of his job. He hated the things they did. He wanted to stop it but he had a family to worry about. He was trapped, just like all the rest.

"No," Matt said. "Let's see how they do. Ray will pay but if we aren't careful, we could turn the Crew against us. I normally wouldn't worry but Ryan has marked Ray as his protégée, Gavin and Michael are best friends with the kid, and Geoff and Jack are loyal to their crew. Killing Ray right now would give them strength they never knew they had. They could pose a threat."

"Really?" Burnie asked.

"Yes," Matt said. "So we wait. We may have to put him into a compromising position instead of executing him. But he will pay. That is for sure."

Burnie cringed inwardly and felt dread unfurl inside of him. He didn't want this but how could he stop it?

"You got it boss."