Fic: The Fast and The Gleeful (4/7)
Title: The Fast and the Gleeful
Author: cranberry_pi
Rating: R for language.
Spoilers: Absolutely none.
Summary: An attempt at this prompt
A/N: This story is giving me crazy writer's block, y'all. So, in an effort to get past it, I'm posting a short chapter and seeing if it helps motivate me a little. Short chapter is short and I don't think it's my best work - you've been warned!
Praying that she could duplicate the things she’d practiced in New York, Rachel accelerated wildly toward Quinn and her captor. He fired at her, leaving a huge spider-web crack in the windshield, but was forced to dive out of the way when she continued to drive straight at him before coming to a stop with the passenger door within arm’s length of Quinn. Quinn opened the door and dove inside, screaming “go! Rachel, just go!”
Rachel didn’t need any more encouragement than that. The car turned quickly, tires squealing, and leapt forward - heading toward the intersection guarded by mafia cars. “Rachel?” Quinn asked nervously. “Shouldn’t we be going the other way?”
“I can do this,” Rachel murmured. “Trust me.” She looked ahead and picked a spot between two of the cars, aiming straight at it. The two cars were parked nose to nose, and she hit their front ends going almost a hundred miles an hour. The Skyline burst through the middle, driving the two cars aside and suffering only minor damage.
“Jesus,” Quinn whispered. “You’re absolutely insane. But it is really good to see you.” Rachel smiled at her for a fraction of a second before turning her attention back to the road.
“Incoming call. Say Yes-”
“Yes!”
“Rachel, it’s Santana!” they could hear gunshots in the background. “Have you got her? Is she okay?”
“I’m fine, S.”
“Good. Rachel, remember what I told you - oh, fuck.”
“What? What is it?”
“That Jessie asshole just took off - I don’t know what he’s driving, you guys, but he’s moving like a fucking rocket. Watch your backs, you two, he’s going to be coming for you.”
“Are you okay, babe?”
“We’ll manage. Puck is a good shot, and I swear to god Britt just ran down two mafia guys with my car. I didn’t know she had it in her. Anyway, you guys scram. We’ll be in touch.”
“Call ended.”
There was a roar behind them, and Quinn looked back, her mouth falling open in shock. “He’s on us already! Is this guy burning jet fuel?”
“Where are we going?”
“What?”
“Quinn, where are we going? I need a destination, and the sooner the better, please!”
“South!” Quinn finally answered. “Head for Mexico!”
“Done.” Rachel cranked the wheel sharply, and they skidded onto a side road - cutting off a city bus in the process. “Let me lose our unwanted company first.”
Quinn reached for a seatbelt, but didn’t find one. Rachel chuckled quietly. “You’re joking, right?” she teased Quinn with her own words. “Just hang on!”
Quinn crossed herself. “This one’s for all the marbles, Rach - if we can outrun Jessie, we’re home free. You up to it?”
“Believe it,” Rachel made another wild turn, skimming the bumper of an oncoming SUV. “Do me a favour and turn the CD player on?”
Quinn did, and was shocked to hear her own voice from the speakers. “You still have this?”
“It’s the only CD that’s ever been in there. Now be quiet, I need to concentrate.”
Quinn could only grin.
There was a blare of horns around them, and Rachel knew without looking back that Jessie had caught up to them. From the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of the navy blue of his car as it swerved toward them, aiming to sideswipe them off the road. She accelerated, taking advantage of a small gap between two cars in front of her, and their bumpers kissed. Ahead of her, the traffic lights at the intersection turned red, and she stepped hard on the gas pedal as she shifted. Quinn gasped as she weaved deftly between the cars coming through the green, emerging on the other side unscathed.
“Fuck me!” Quinn shouted, looking behind them. “Who taught you to drive?”
“I did!” Rachel answered with a grin. The grin disappeared as Jessie’s car rammed into them from behind. “What is it going to take to get rid of this guy?” She turned the wheel sharply to the left, swerving through two lanes of oncoming traffic and into a narrow alley. She hit a bump coming out the other side and went airborne, coming down in front of a police officer, who was nearly too stunned to turn on his siren and start to follow her - but only nearly.
“Shit!” Quinn muttered. “One more thing we didn’t need!” As they accelerated away, Jessie came flying out of the alley and broadsided the police car, driving it into oncoming traffic before turning and continuing his chase. Rachel frantically scanned the traffic ahead of her, searching for an opening, and found one as she drove up an access ramp to one of the city’s highways.
“The highway, Rach? We’re going to be pretty exposed here.”
“So will he,” Rachel replied tersely, ignoring the honking horns as she merged in front of a tanker truck, falling back to nestle alongside it. Jessie, predictably, followed them up the ramp and sped off ahead, looking for them. Rachel smiled grimly as he realised they were behind him, then made a frantic evasive turn as he pulled into their lane and slammed on his brakes. She swung out around him, ducking as he fired a large-calibre weapon at them. Her window shattered, and beside her she heard Quinn cry out.
“Are you okay?” she shouted, not able to take her eyes off the road. “Quinn?”
“I’m fine! It’s only a scratch.”
“Incoming call, say ‘Yes’ to-“
“Yes! Look, whoever this is, make it quick, as I’m a tad bit preoccupied at present!”
“A ‘tad bit’? Could you at least speak English?”
“What is it, Santana?”
“Cops - they’re seriously everywhere. I just wanted to give you the heads-up, because if they’re on us already they’ll be coming after you too. We’re headed for the safehouse now, you guys just find any port in a storm. We’ll be in touch.”
“Call ended.”
Rachel found an opening big enough for the Skyline to slip through and made her way to the right line of the highway, never letting off the gas. With a wink at Quinn, she toggled a button on the steering wheel and the car exploded forward. Traffic seemed to blur around them, and Rachel said a quick prayer that they’d both survive what she had planned.
“I never put NOS in this car!”
“I found a very good mechanic!” Rachel shouted back, ducking and weaving through lanes, including swerving into oncoming traffic when it was necessary. Horns honked loudly in all directions and she wondered where Jessie was, but she couldn’t spare the microsecond it would take to look in the rearview mirror. She heard Quinn gasp as she slid between two buses, a tight enough fit that the passenger side mirror was sheared off the car. “So - how’ve you been?”
“You’re making small talk?” Quinn asked incredulously. “Really?”
“Really,” she cranked the wheel, passing a tanker truck labelled with dangerous goods warnings.
“I’ve missed you,” Quinn admitted. “I wanted to come back so many times, and see you, but I was so worried that I’d get you in trouble. What about you? Are you in Julliard yet?”
Rachel was touched that she’d remembered. “I just got my acceptance not long ago, and I’ve been doing some community theatre.”
“I wish I could have seen you,” she smiled. “Who talked you into this scheme?”
“One second,” Rachel scanned the road, searching for an exit. The first one she saw didn’t lead anywhere helpful, but the second made her eyes light up. She pulled across four lanes of traffic and hit the exit ramp at blinding speed, emerging onto a nearly empty road. “Sorry - uh, it was Puck, actually. He felt that he owed you one, and thought it would be handy if there was another driver available for your rescue. Were you mistreated at all?” she nearly growled the question. “If so, I-”
“No, Rach, really. They were fairly civilised about the whole thing, at least until Jessie got involved. He’s a bit of a hothead, and even the family thinks of him as a liability. What are you going to do when this is over? I’d ditch the car - the cops will have your make and license by now.”
Rachel’s head spun at the change of topic, and she cursed as a pair of rapidly gaining headlights appeared in her mirror. “I’m coming with you, of course.”
“Rachel.”
“You’re not talking me out of it, okay? I feel like a completely different person in your presence, and I was foolish enough to let that feeling go once already when I let you leave New York without me.”
“You do realise that the only place we’ll likely be going together is prison, right?”
“I’ll be your bitch,” Rachel promised, “make you look tough.” Quinn stared at her open-mouthed for a moment and burst out laughing.
“You really are insane. Okay, let’s say I was willing to let you do that. Just for the sake of argument. First, we need to lose this guy.”
“I have a plan,” Rachel promised, stomping on her brake as Jessie pulled up alongside them. He overshot them, and she pulled in behind him before hitting the gas again and ramming his back end. His car shimmied wildly, but he didn’t lose control. Instead he hit the brakes, and forced her to swing wide around him. She could see him levelling his gun again, and she sideswiped him, hard. There was a flash from inside his car, and it swung wildly. She hoped for a moment that he’d shot himself, but that hope disappeared when he regained control. She held down a button on the dashboard until the voice of her Bluetooth connection spoke.
“Ready.”
“Call.”
“Name or number, please.”
“Artie.”
“Dialling.”
The phone rang a few times, and then there was a click as someone answered. “Hello?”
“Artie - it’s Rachel. I need a favour, and I need it quick. How good a hacker are you?”
“I’m insulted you’d ask that.”
“Can you get access to the drawbridge controls for the city?”
“Of course I can. Why?”
“I need you to open the Park Street bridge.”
“When?”
Rachel looked out the windshield, gauging distance. “About forty-five seconds from now.”
“It’ll be open. Good luck.”
“Thanks, Artie!” Quinn shouted.
“Call ended.”
“You can’t be serious,” Quinn looked at Rachel. “Tell me you’re not serious.” Rachel didn’t answer. “You are serious. Fuck me sideways.” She sat back in her seat, crossing herself. Rachel dodged another attempted sideswipe from Jessie and accelerated as quickly as she could, adding in a boost of nitrous at the last moment to push the car to its limits. The bridge loomed closer, and they could both see the warning lights start to blaze as the bridge lifted. Rachel’s knuckles were white as she gripped the wheel and Quinn grabbed her seat with both hands. Jessie, seeing what they were trying to do, sped up until he was right beside them. Quinn could see him grin, shaking a finger at them as if to say “no, that isn’t going to happen.”
They raced side by each toward the slowly widening gap between the halves of the bridge - and then, at the last possible second, Rachel shifted into park and threw the parking brake, turning the wheel sharply. The car skidded towards the gap, but the tires grabbed in time to keep them from going over. Jessie wasn’t so lucky - seeing that they had pulled back, he tried to do the same, but he was too close. His car slowed, but only enough that it couldn’t make the jump and fell straight down instead, plunging into the water below.
Author: cranberry_pi
Rating: R for language.
Spoilers: Absolutely none.
Summary: An attempt at this prompt
A/N: This story is giving me crazy writer's block, y'all. So, in an effort to get past it, I'm posting a short chapter and seeing if it helps motivate me a little. Short chapter is short and I don't think it's my best work - you've been warned!
Praying that she could duplicate the things she’d practiced in New York, Rachel accelerated wildly toward Quinn and her captor. He fired at her, leaving a huge spider-web crack in the windshield, but was forced to dive out of the way when she continued to drive straight at him before coming to a stop with the passenger door within arm’s length of Quinn. Quinn opened the door and dove inside, screaming “go! Rachel, just go!”
Rachel didn’t need any more encouragement than that. The car turned quickly, tires squealing, and leapt forward - heading toward the intersection guarded by mafia cars. “Rachel?” Quinn asked nervously. “Shouldn’t we be going the other way?”
“I can do this,” Rachel murmured. “Trust me.” She looked ahead and picked a spot between two of the cars, aiming straight at it. The two cars were parked nose to nose, and she hit their front ends going almost a hundred miles an hour. The Skyline burst through the middle, driving the two cars aside and suffering only minor damage.
“Jesus,” Quinn whispered. “You’re absolutely insane. But it is really good to see you.” Rachel smiled at her for a fraction of a second before turning her attention back to the road.
“Incoming call. Say Yes-”
“Yes!”
“Rachel, it’s Santana!” they could hear gunshots in the background. “Have you got her? Is she okay?”
“I’m fine, S.”
“Good. Rachel, remember what I told you - oh, fuck.”
“What? What is it?”
“That Jessie asshole just took off - I don’t know what he’s driving, you guys, but he’s moving like a fucking rocket. Watch your backs, you two, he’s going to be coming for you.”
“Are you okay, babe?”
“We’ll manage. Puck is a good shot, and I swear to god Britt just ran down two mafia guys with my car. I didn’t know she had it in her. Anyway, you guys scram. We’ll be in touch.”
“Call ended.”
There was a roar behind them, and Quinn looked back, her mouth falling open in shock. “He’s on us already! Is this guy burning jet fuel?”
“Where are we going?”
“What?”
“Quinn, where are we going? I need a destination, and the sooner the better, please!”
“South!” Quinn finally answered. “Head for Mexico!”
“Done.” Rachel cranked the wheel sharply, and they skidded onto a side road - cutting off a city bus in the process. “Let me lose our unwanted company first.”
Quinn reached for a seatbelt, but didn’t find one. Rachel chuckled quietly. “You’re joking, right?” she teased Quinn with her own words. “Just hang on!”
Quinn crossed herself. “This one’s for all the marbles, Rach - if we can outrun Jessie, we’re home free. You up to it?”
“Believe it,” Rachel made another wild turn, skimming the bumper of an oncoming SUV. “Do me a favour and turn the CD player on?”
Quinn did, and was shocked to hear her own voice from the speakers. “You still have this?”
“It’s the only CD that’s ever been in there. Now be quiet, I need to concentrate.”
Quinn could only grin.
There was a blare of horns around them, and Rachel knew without looking back that Jessie had caught up to them. From the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of the navy blue of his car as it swerved toward them, aiming to sideswipe them off the road. She accelerated, taking advantage of a small gap between two cars in front of her, and their bumpers kissed. Ahead of her, the traffic lights at the intersection turned red, and she stepped hard on the gas pedal as she shifted. Quinn gasped as she weaved deftly between the cars coming through the green, emerging on the other side unscathed.
“Fuck me!” Quinn shouted, looking behind them. “Who taught you to drive?”
“I did!” Rachel answered with a grin. The grin disappeared as Jessie’s car rammed into them from behind. “What is it going to take to get rid of this guy?” She turned the wheel sharply to the left, swerving through two lanes of oncoming traffic and into a narrow alley. She hit a bump coming out the other side and went airborne, coming down in front of a police officer, who was nearly too stunned to turn on his siren and start to follow her - but only nearly.
“Shit!” Quinn muttered. “One more thing we didn’t need!” As they accelerated away, Jessie came flying out of the alley and broadsided the police car, driving it into oncoming traffic before turning and continuing his chase. Rachel frantically scanned the traffic ahead of her, searching for an opening, and found one as she drove up an access ramp to one of the city’s highways.
“The highway, Rach? We’re going to be pretty exposed here.”
“So will he,” Rachel replied tersely, ignoring the honking horns as she merged in front of a tanker truck, falling back to nestle alongside it. Jessie, predictably, followed them up the ramp and sped off ahead, looking for them. Rachel smiled grimly as he realised they were behind him, then made a frantic evasive turn as he pulled into their lane and slammed on his brakes. She swung out around him, ducking as he fired a large-calibre weapon at them. Her window shattered, and beside her she heard Quinn cry out.
“Are you okay?” she shouted, not able to take her eyes off the road. “Quinn?”
“I’m fine! It’s only a scratch.”
“Incoming call, say ‘Yes’ to-“
“Yes! Look, whoever this is, make it quick, as I’m a tad bit preoccupied at present!”
“A ‘tad bit’? Could you at least speak English?”
“What is it, Santana?”
“Cops - they’re seriously everywhere. I just wanted to give you the heads-up, because if they’re on us already they’ll be coming after you too. We’re headed for the safehouse now, you guys just find any port in a storm. We’ll be in touch.”
“Call ended.”
Rachel found an opening big enough for the Skyline to slip through and made her way to the right line of the highway, never letting off the gas. With a wink at Quinn, she toggled a button on the steering wheel and the car exploded forward. Traffic seemed to blur around them, and Rachel said a quick prayer that they’d both survive what she had planned.
“I never put NOS in this car!”
“I found a very good mechanic!” Rachel shouted back, ducking and weaving through lanes, including swerving into oncoming traffic when it was necessary. Horns honked loudly in all directions and she wondered where Jessie was, but she couldn’t spare the microsecond it would take to look in the rearview mirror. She heard Quinn gasp as she slid between two buses, a tight enough fit that the passenger side mirror was sheared off the car. “So - how’ve you been?”
“You’re making small talk?” Quinn asked incredulously. “Really?”
“Really,” she cranked the wheel, passing a tanker truck labelled with dangerous goods warnings.
“I’ve missed you,” Quinn admitted. “I wanted to come back so many times, and see you, but I was so worried that I’d get you in trouble. What about you? Are you in Julliard yet?”
Rachel was touched that she’d remembered. “I just got my acceptance not long ago, and I’ve been doing some community theatre.”
“I wish I could have seen you,” she smiled. “Who talked you into this scheme?”
“One second,” Rachel scanned the road, searching for an exit. The first one she saw didn’t lead anywhere helpful, but the second made her eyes light up. She pulled across four lanes of traffic and hit the exit ramp at blinding speed, emerging onto a nearly empty road. “Sorry - uh, it was Puck, actually. He felt that he owed you one, and thought it would be handy if there was another driver available for your rescue. Were you mistreated at all?” she nearly growled the question. “If so, I-”
“No, Rach, really. They were fairly civilised about the whole thing, at least until Jessie got involved. He’s a bit of a hothead, and even the family thinks of him as a liability. What are you going to do when this is over? I’d ditch the car - the cops will have your make and license by now.”
Rachel’s head spun at the change of topic, and she cursed as a pair of rapidly gaining headlights appeared in her mirror. “I’m coming with you, of course.”
“Rachel.”
“You’re not talking me out of it, okay? I feel like a completely different person in your presence, and I was foolish enough to let that feeling go once already when I let you leave New York without me.”
“You do realise that the only place we’ll likely be going together is prison, right?”
“I’ll be your bitch,” Rachel promised, “make you look tough.” Quinn stared at her open-mouthed for a moment and burst out laughing.
“You really are insane. Okay, let’s say I was willing to let you do that. Just for the sake of argument. First, we need to lose this guy.”
“I have a plan,” Rachel promised, stomping on her brake as Jessie pulled up alongside them. He overshot them, and she pulled in behind him before hitting the gas again and ramming his back end. His car shimmied wildly, but he didn’t lose control. Instead he hit the brakes, and forced her to swing wide around him. She could see him levelling his gun again, and she sideswiped him, hard. There was a flash from inside his car, and it swung wildly. She hoped for a moment that he’d shot himself, but that hope disappeared when he regained control. She held down a button on the dashboard until the voice of her Bluetooth connection spoke.
“Ready.”
“Call.”
“Name or number, please.”
“Artie.”
“Dialling.”
The phone rang a few times, and then there was a click as someone answered. “Hello?”
“Artie - it’s Rachel. I need a favour, and I need it quick. How good a hacker are you?”
“I’m insulted you’d ask that.”
“Can you get access to the drawbridge controls for the city?”
“Of course I can. Why?”
“I need you to open the Park Street bridge.”
“When?”
Rachel looked out the windshield, gauging distance. “About forty-five seconds from now.”
“It’ll be open. Good luck.”
“Thanks, Artie!” Quinn shouted.
“Call ended.”
“You can’t be serious,” Quinn looked at Rachel. “Tell me you’re not serious.” Rachel didn’t answer. “You are serious. Fuck me sideways.” She sat back in her seat, crossing herself. Rachel dodged another attempted sideswipe from Jessie and accelerated as quickly as she could, adding in a boost of nitrous at the last moment to push the car to its limits. The bridge loomed closer, and they could both see the warning lights start to blaze as the bridge lifted. Rachel’s knuckles were white as she gripped the wheel and Quinn grabbed her seat with both hands. Jessie, seeing what they were trying to do, sped up until he was right beside them. Quinn could see him grin, shaking a finger at them as if to say “no, that isn’t going to happen.”
They raced side by each toward the slowly widening gap between the halves of the bridge - and then, at the last possible second, Rachel shifted into park and threw the parking brake, turning the wheel sharply. The car skidded towards the gap, but the tires grabbed in time to keep them from going over. Jessie wasn’t so lucky - seeing that they had pulled back, he tried to do the same, but he was too close. His car slowed, but only enough that it couldn’t make the jump and fell straight down instead, plunging into the water below.