All Good Things

Chapter Two

Ray Mond quickly made herself small as Randy shouted for the others to begin shooting at the officer. The sound of gunshots reverberated in her head. A flash of green bullied its way to the forefront of her mind and close behind it was the faint smell of gasoline. Suddenly, her chest felt too tight to breathe, all the air seeming to get stuck in her lungs. With her hands clasped over her ears, trying- and failing- to drown out the shots, Ray was quickly overwhelmed with a barrage of memories and emotions.

Her head pounded in time with the flashes of rushing water and dizzying heights, the sharp zing as a bullet grazed her arm, the blood on her hands after probing the spot where her forehead connected with a metal crossbeam... Unbidden, all of it played through her mind, like a horrific slideshow of trauma that she was helpless to stop.

In her panicked state, Ray couldn't hear the concern in her mentor's voice. Really, she couldn't even distinguish his voice over the manic one screaming in her head. Only when a hand gripped her shoulder did she react.

Randy swiftly pulled away from Ray as she instinctively struck out against his hold, but he gave a small sigh of relief when he noticed that she had turned to look in his direction. Her breathing still came in small, stilted gasps, however, and the glazed-over look in her eyes hadn't yet cleared up.

The two in the backseat were quiet as the white-haired man continued to talk to Ray in a calm voice, his worry etched on his face. This wasn't the first time they'd been in this situation; however, it was the first time it had happened in nearly a month. For the first six weeks or so after the incident on the bridge, these kinds of panic attacks had been an almost daily occurrence. That was why Ray hadn't been included in any sort of bank or boosting type of job since that night. Randy was aware that gunshots were the worst trigger for Ray's panic attacks- which had made living in Little Seoul a challenge for the young woman.

Eventually, the panic attacks had dwindled and stopped altogether, though. She had stopped freaking out every time the umbrella had a holdout, and she'd even helped him and the boys with their own shootout against the cops two weeks before without incident.

Randy was worried about her, but he was also worried that she might not ever be allowed to come on jobs like this with the gang. He knew that Mr. K would never allow her to be a part of a heist group if she might potentially be a liability to the rest of the people involved, and he didn't want the problem to escalate to that level. The gang leader already had his doubts.

Randy threw a look over his shoulder at Ramee, who seemed to understand what his worries were in that instant because he said, in a hushed tone, "It stays between us."

"Thank you," Randy responded, equally hushed.

Turning back to Ray, he observed that her breathing had begun to even out. She had put her face in her hands, no doubt upset about the whole thing now that she was more aware. Not wanting her to wallow in it, Randy reached over and rubbed comforting circles on her back.

The sound of approaching police sirens in the distance disturbed the quiet moment.

"Hey, look at me," Randy softly commanded her. She complied instantly. Her eyes when they met his were glassy with unshed tears, but they were more focused than they'd been two minutes ago.

"We need to go, okay? I really want to give you more time, but we don't have any more of that at the moment," he said gently. She blinked back some of the tears and squared her shoulders as she sat upright in the passenger seat. Then, still looking back at him, Ray gave a little nod of her head. "Yeah?" She nodded again.

Randy didn't need any more confirmation. The sirens were probably less than two blocks away by that point. With one last glance at her, he hit the accelerator and sped back onto the streets.