Amy didn't know why she was so nervous, because it wasn't as if this was the first time she had done something reckless and dangerous for The A-Team. Maybe it was that Castellano really freaked her out for some reason. Maybe it was the fact that she would be all alone, the four A-Team members busy saving the day. Maybe it was because she had realized that this wasn't really about the scoop anymore.

She loved these guys. Sure their team comprised a huge man with some serious anger issues, a chauvinistic jerk, a lunatic, and another chauvinistic jerk that was also a lunatic. But she still loved them. They had become her best friends, and Amy genuinely wanted to help them, not for herself, but because their cause was a worthy one-and because she loved them.

And so here she was, walking into the casino at 11:06 PM as Susan Callaway, ready to do her part to help her friends. She had a while to kill before she needed to get the distraction into play, and so she first walked up to the bar and ordered a drink as Susan. She spent several inwardly stressful minutes avoiding the men that were giving her sultry looks as they passed by, and smoothed out the slim and sparkly black and blue dress she was wearing, keeping her bare back and shoulders facing as away as they could be from any onlookers. When she saw it was 11:29, she left the bar and entered the casino floor, walking up to the table nearest to the middle of the room and asking if she could please play.

In the next fifteen or so minutes, Amy did her very utmost to lose every roll with the dice that she could, and for the most part, she succeeded. Every time she lost, Susan got a little bit more upset. To all the increasingly interested onlookers, it looked as if her luck had completely turned around since the night before.

"Ugh!" She threw her hands into the air after losing for probably the 14th time and stomped one of her feet on the ground, turning several heads in her direction. She acted as if she wanted to throw the black purse that was in her hand at the wall, but instead gave an angry huff and waited impatiently for her next turn, catching a glance at the nearest clock while she stood there.

11:48. It was almost time. . .

She took the dice and rolled, "Come on, eleven!"

The dice both came to a stop, and she let out a strangled yell and an inward sigh of relief when it again appeared that she had lost. The man working at her table seemed almost more nervous than Amy felt, and clearly had no idea what he was supposed to do with a customer who was having a very public tantrum.

"Ma'am? Do you need to step away for a moment?" He asked her uncertainly, and she swiveled to look at him with fire in her eyes.

"Do I need to step away for a moment?!" She took a step towards him and felt even more casino-goers gaping at her, "That's what you want, isn't it?! You're just trying to steal my money!" Amy let the last few words out of her mouth get closer to a shout. "You are just using me! You don't care what happens to me, as long as I lose and you get to keep my money!" She was almost screaming now, and she swung around to make sure as many eyes as possible were on her, and saw that it was time. She turned back to face the worker, and when he took a careful step toward her, she shouted as she ripped a small pistol from her purse and pointed it in the air, "GET BACK!"

The loud crack that resounded around the room had several people giving shouts and scared screams, and she heard a collective gasp as she turned to look at everyone around her, yelling again, "Everybody get down on the ground!" She pointed the gun at the casino worker, "Stay away from me!"

The man immediately backed off and dropped to the ground, petrified with fear, and Amy did her best to sound and look unhinged, not bothering to brush back a loose hair that had fallen out of her fancy updo she had carefully put into place hours earlier.

She felt as if all was going fairly well, and she knew she had succeeded as a distraction when Vito Castellano himself, two tux-wearing men walking stiffly behind him, strode into the room. He stopped when he seemed to recognize her and Amy watched him assess the situation before gingerly stepping down the few steps into the casino floor and calling to her softly,

"Miss Callaway? Darling, what has happened? What have they done to you?" She tried not to narrow her eyes at him pretending to be on her side, and gave a strangled yell that turned into a fake sob as she pointed the gun at him. He stopped in his tracks and his men did as well, and he gave a soft laugh, "Susan, I know I said I wanted to see you again tonight, but you did not have to go to all this trouble to get my attention."

"NO!" The scream was out of Susan before Amy had a chance to think, and so she let her role continue, "You just wanted to use me until I was used up and then throw me away! Just like the casino! Just like everybody else!" She took a gasping breath before continuing, Vito's slightly surprised but sharp eyes staring her down, "I'm TIRED of being used! I'm tired of EVERYTHING!"

She stole a glance at the clock to see that it was 11:57 closing in on eight, and when the sleek mob boss tried to speak, saying her name with wonderfully artificial sincerity, she only screamed again,

"Stop talking! I don't want to hear any more of anything! I'm-I-" Amy struggled to think of what to say, but found a solution and plowed on, "I'm done being treated like a toy! I'm done living!" She heard a few gasps from the onlookers crouching on the ground, "And I'm gonna make you watch me do it!"

With a genuinely shocked look from Castellano, she pulled the gun towards herself and held it to her skull, more of her hair falling loose in the process. She watched Vito put his hands in the air in a peaceful gesture, and he spoke convincingly, "Darling, of course I don't think of you as a toy. You won over $20,000 last night-you would not want to throw that away, would you?" He stepped closer to her slowly, "Why don't you put the gun down, we will get you your money, and you can take it home and spend it all how you please? Doesn't that sound nice?" His charm was clearly turned all the way up, and Amy let Susan falter as he came within six feet of her.

"You-you don't-" Another quick glance at the clock as she nervously shifted from high heel to high heel, "I'm not just your toy?" It was seconds away from being midnight, and Amy knew she just needed to string everyone, including Castellano, along for a few more minutes.

"Of course not, Susan darling!" He tried to advance even closer to her, but Amy didn't let him, stepping away herself and pointing the gun at him again rather than her own head,

"Don't come any closer! I don't believe you!" Amy spat the words at the man before her, the people on the ground cowering lower in fear as she swung the pistol around, "You're a liar, and you're just lying to me now! So-so you just stay right there! I'm warning you!"

Castellano still didn't seem frightened, but instead started looking annoyed as he spoke again with an underlying sharpness to his tone, "If you don't believe me, I can send someone to go get your money now, and you can leave and never see me again-would you like that?" He raised a hand behind him to signal one of his men, but Amy shook her head vehemently, not wanting anyone to leave and find her friends snooping around their casino,

"NO-no!" Amy pointed the gun at the bodyguard who had begun moving back the way they had entered the room, but before she could say anything else, an alarm rang through the building before falling silent. She nearly jumped out of her skin and whipped her head around once to see if any of her friends were nearby, but it was just enough of a distraction that she didn't see it coming when Vito's tall figure lunged at her. He ripped the gun from her hand and twisted her arm behind her back, bringing his own arm around her waist and locking her against his body.

"Let go of me!" Amy struggled in vain but stopped as he twisted her arm more tightly behind her, forcing another involuntary shout from her.

"Everybody OUT!" Castellano sounded close to losing his cool, and as people began quickly making their way to the doors, he forced Amy forward and up the few stairs towards the office he had made advances to her in the night before. "This way, darling." He spoke into her ear in a way that sent shivers down her spine.

As they entered his large and empty office (save three men on the ground unconscious), he shoved her roughly down in the same velvet chair she had sat in the other night, clearly out of patience as he angrily turned to face her. One of his larger men pinned her wrists to the chair's armrests tightly enough for her to start losing feeling in her hands as Castellano gave her a dark look,

"I should have known that you were not all you seemed, Susan. Now because of your little show, I have lost my property to Hannibal Smith and the rest of The A Team." He strode over to his desk, reaching inside and grabbing a small device with several switches on it and holding it up for her to see as he continued, "The good news is, someone triggered an alarm in the vault by deactivating it's defense protocols." He flipped one of the switches and set the device down again as Amy watched, "Whoever they are, they are going to be dead within the next few minutes." He stepped closer to her, watching her closely, "Without any air in my saferoom, it will be much harder to rob, no?"

Amy's thoughts flew to Murdock and Face who had confidently (on Murdock's part) left to play their part in Hannibal's plan.

Face.

"No!" Amy immediately tried to rip her hands from their confinement, tried to stand up, tried to kick the man behind or in front of her somehow, tried to escape-but it was all in vain. The sleek mobster standing over her (but out of kicking distance) gave a wicked smile at her reaction to his words.

"The other good news is that I also still have you, Miss Callaway." Amy stilled enough to watch him casually walk to his desk, unlocking and opening a drawer that Amy could only pretend wasn't full of something horrible, "And I think, with a little gentle persuasion, we will find out where the rest your friends have run off to with my prize."

...

So yeah. Here we are again! I know it's not super high quality writing, but I'm having a lot of fun watching this fic kinda evolve.

I. Own. Nothing. *sigh* Oh well I don't deserve it anyway.

Read and review please and thank you my peeps! Hopefully I get the next chapter out within a few days!

Thanks Homies!

-Queen