Chapter One

           TRAFFIC IN DETROIT WAS PRETTY HORRENDOUS DESPITE THE HOUR OF DAY. At least, that is how Lucy Moreau felt now that she sat in her old beat up black Jeep Cherokee. The air conditioning was no longer working and despite the open windows, sweat still formed on her forehead from the heat outside.      

The soft thrum of music echoed through the vehicle as she stared at the car in front of her, waiting for it to start driving again.      

The brunette's fuel lights turned on and she cursed loudly, scanning the area for a nearby gas station, but she couldn't see one. She'd make it home, it wasn't that far away now but she definitely needed to get gas before work the next day. It had been a long shift at the hospital and all she wanted right now was a cold shower and some strong alcohol.

Lucy pressed her nails in the steering wheel while she fanned herself with the other hand. Traffic began to move slowly so she pressed her gas pedal as she followed after the car in front of her. 

Her phone rang, for the fifth time since she had gotten in the car, and she ignored it blatantly with a roll of her eyes.

The answer was no. It didn't matter how many times they'd ask her, it stayed the exact same. It wasn't like they were pressuring her, not at all, at least she didn't think so. It was more desperate than anything else and she understood. Hell, she could use the money as well as they could but Lucy didn't want to resort to crimes to get it.

After the sixth ring of her phone, did she decide to press the answer button and Annie Mark's voice filled the car with a shrill sound.

"Why don't you answer your phone? Like ever?" 

"I'm on my way home, Annie." sighed Lucy as she rubbed the side of her face before taking a turn towards her apartment building. "What is it?"

"Why does there need to be something for me to call my best friend?"

Lucy clicked her tongue and tried not to smile. "Because this is the sixth time in that last ten minutes."

It was quiet on the other end of the line for a moment before she said, "I could be in danger, you know? I could be dead right now and that would be on you for not answering my distress call."

"Are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Dead, Annie."

Another pause. "I could be."

The brunette pursed her lips and shook her head, her annoyance dispersed as amusement took over. Lucy switched lanes then, pulling up to her apartment building and putting her car in park. "If you're going to ask me to rob your workplace, the answer is still no." 

"What if you don't have to rob anything!" squeaked Annie, and she could hear her older sister Beth Boland whisper something to her but she couldn't make out the words. "We need a getaway car. All you'd do is have to drive, won't even have to step foot inside. I swear."

"I'd still be involved."

"No?" tried Annie and then Beth snatched the phone away.

"Ten grand is yours if you do this." Spoke the woman on the other end of the line. "If we get caught, which we won't, you'll be off the hook. You'd have nothing to do with it, you have our word."

"Ten grand." echoed Annie in a sing song voice.

"I'll call you back." was all Lucy said as she ended the call, closing her eyes and letting her head rest against her seat. 

Lucy rolled up her windows and grabbed her bag as she slid from her seat, locking her car behind her as she stumbled towards her building. Her legs felt like jelly from the amount of walking she had been doing during her shift. 

The thought of holding ten grand in her hands got her mind mulling it over again. If she wanted to move to another building and get rid of her student debt she could definitely use it. But there were more disadvantages to resorting to crime than trying to save it up, even if it took her months to do so. 

Prison was not for her and she didn't want to risk it, but when she pushed open her apartment door and saw the letter on the floor with her name in sloppy handwriting on it, she had made up her mind.

✧✧✧✧✧

         "I ROBBED A GROCERY STORE."

"Earth to Beth? Are you in there?"

"I robbed a grocery store."

"Who's secretary of State?"

"I robbed a grocery store."

Lucy glanced up from the pile of money on the dining room table with a scowl on her face. The adrenaline had left her body and it was now replaced with dread. The fact that her friends were also panicking wasn't helping. 

There was more money than she had ever seen her entire life on the table and she tried to count it as Annie made neat stacks before her.

The brunette regretted having changed her mind the moment she did so and as she sat in the car behind Fine 'n Frugal she contemplated ever being friends with them.

"Who is secretary of State?" Ruby Hill wondered aloud, confused by her own question from before.

Beth sat on the couch in her living room as she stared off into the blazing fireplace. Lucy and Ruby shared a concerned glance in her direction as she spoke. "We robbed a grocery store."

"Oh, we totally did." said Ruby as she paced back and forth.

"And we actually got away with it." Beth had snapped out of her trance, and she looked up at her friend.

"Like some smooth criminals." Ruby said, catching Beth's eye as they both began to laugh. It was probably nerves. At least, Lucy hoped it was.

Annie, the strawberry blonde's sister counted the money for the third time that evening and glanced at the two duffel bags on the chair beside her. Lucy rested her head in the palm of her hand as she watched her, chewing the bottom of her lip.

Beth had mortgage problems because of her husband Dean, who was cheating with a twenty-two-year-old girl at his job. Annie needed money for a lawyer to fight her ex for custody of her daughter Sadie. Ruby needed it for medication for her daughter Sarah.

Lucy needed money too, desperately actually. Her landlord was a pervert and she had to have a down payment if she wanted a new apartment, her student loans were so high she wouldn't even have it all payed by the age of eighty and her car was a wreck.

"How much did we get?" Ruby wondered as she looked at Annie who was holding the money with a grimace. "Tell me we got the forty?"

"We got it." Annie waved the stacks around happily. "We got more than the forty grand."

"How much more?" asked Lucy, sitting up straight as she gave Beth an alarmed look. The brunette eyed the bags beside Annie. There was still money in there, but she didn't know how much, she leaned forwards to take a peek.

Annie pulled a face and grabbed the bag beside her on the chair, emptying the contents on the table. Stacks and stacks of money fell out. There was another bag underneath the chair and that too was filled to the brim with hundred-dollar bills. The stacks fell onto the hardwood floor as the pile grew.

"What the hell?" Lucy panicked, eyes wide.

"How is this even possible?" Beth demanded as Annie began to stack them in separate piles. The woman counted half a million dollars and she grinned with pride.

"Count it again." said Ruby, pacing back and forth again.

"I counted it right." Annie said, resting her weight on her right leg and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Count it again!" Ruby ordered, throwing her arms up.

"You said there would be forty!" accused Beth and the woman closed her eyes in frustration.

"I said 'forty, give or take' I guess it was give." Annie argued, rolling her eyes. The youngest of the four wasn't even remotely fazed that they had stolen half a million dollars from her workplace.

"Why does a grocery store even have this kind of money on hand?" Lucy breathed, rubbing the mascara from her eyes as she leaned back in her chair. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Because it is hella shady! I told you this was a bad idea." Ruby said, as she turned to Beth.

"You guys are missing the point. We just won half a million dollars." Annie said, lopsided smile on her face as she looked at her older sister.

"We didn't win anything." Ruby said, hand on her hips.

"Half a mil, bitches!" Annie cheered.

"We didn't win it!" Lucy argued as Annie dropped her arms by her side and kept her mouth shut. "We stole it! And maybe the cops don't follow up on forty thousand dollars. They damn sure follow up on half a million dollars. We'll go to prison!"

"What do we do?" Beth asked, eyes wide as she looked at her friends.

"Nothing." Ruby said. "We divide it up and sit on it. Until we can come up with a way to get rid of it quietly. Without looking like, you know ..."

"Criminals," Beth sighed, running a hand through her light hair.

"Okay?" Lucy asked as she looked at the youngest expectantly, who was watching the money in awe.

"Yeah, okay." nodded Annie absentmindedly.

Lucy raised a brow.

"Okay," Annie rolled her eyes.

"We will take a hundred and twenty-five grand each." Beth nodded. "We do not spend a dime until we have figured out what to do."

"Can I at least –" Annie started.

"No," Lucy shook her head. "we need to figure this out first. See what the cops know and how they handle things. Annie, you will probably be questioned at the store."

"I wasn't even there." Annie grimaced. "at least, not working."

"They will question you nonetheless." Beth agreed.

"You need an alibi." Ruby stated, sharing a glance with the other woman beside her.

"You were at my place." Lucy shrugged. "we watched Scream and ordered pepperoni pizza. Memorise that, they will question me too if you tell them, you were with me to see if your alibi checks out. Got it?"

"Okay," Annie sighed. "Scream and pepperoni pizza."

hi! this is the first chapter for my rio fic. i'll start following from season one but i do plan to make it au after and not follow the rest of the seasons, maybe stuff from them here and there but it won't be the main focus. i'll put the main focus on lucy and rio after the first few chapters!!

hope you'll enjoy this <3