Story Title: Late Night Insomnia
By: rapsRlife
Story tags: Alternate Universe—Jewel Thieves, Ooc Finn, Finn/Vanesa, Finesa, love heals Finn, disability awareness, wheelchair Finn
Date Published: March 1
Author's Note: In this story Finn will be acting out of character. This is my first and only warning, so please don't complain if you can't handle Finn not acting like 'your precious cinnamon roll.' I find that personally I have a much easier time writing what I intend when I'm not constrained by character traits. If you've read my other story, Johnstovsky, you know what I mean. Neither Johnston or Makovsky act like their canon counterparts, but they are consistent with how I characterize them. I like how my Finn Gunn is. And I'm positive others will too.
Disclaimer: I clearly don't own Finn Gunn and his awesome adventures.
ENJOY!!!
The gravel crunched beneath his feet. The howling winds no match against Finn's determination. His icy blue eyes set on the space in of him, as if he were approaching a destiny only he could see.
Johnston, Rigby, and Ostergard were waiting for him at a pier shrouded with evening fog. Welcoming yet the closer Finn got to the pier, foreboding. Before Finn reached the pier, he stopped by a nearby street lamp. A deep sigh escaped from him as he stood. Finn suddenly felt unsure of what he was about to do. The wind ruffled his brown curly hair as it rushed past as if to reassure him.
Coming out tonight might have been a mistake. He wasn't willing to face repercussions for tonight. Finn was sure Johnston, Rigby, and Ostergard would feel same as he, when they knew what was at stake. Finn would make them understand what was at stake.
He trudged closer to the pier. Johnston, Rigby and Ostergard were chatting aimlessly. Unaware that Finn grew closer.
"Boys, are we ready?" Finn's voice was soft, so soft they may have missed it.
The chatter died instantly. All three of his friends turned their whole attention to Finn. None of them spoke, none of them moved.
Ostergard tried to blow warmth back into his ungloved hands. All three eyes snapped to him. He shrugged them off.
"I say we do it. We got nothing to lose."
To Finn's horror, Rigby nodded.
"I have bills to pay. Count me in."
It was just Johnston and Finn who had not decided. Finn and Johnston made eye contact, trying to silently communicate. Who would voice their concerns first?
"We have to remember we stick together no matter what. If we get caught, everyone goes down."
That was not what Finn had wanted Johnston to say. He grimaced, it was too late now. All of the others had pledged their willingness in some form, except for him. All eyes were upon him, Finn tucked away his fears.
"Right, its settled. We'll split into two cars: Johnston and me in one. Ostergard and Rigby in the other," He decided out loud.
No one disagreed with him. Finn sniffled, his nose had succumb to the cold. Everyone shuffled into their assigned car, too nervous to talk.
Johnston cranked the heater on as Finn got settled into his car. Johnston's car was well loved and it showed. Finn had gone on many adventures with Johnston and his car. It was scary to think tonight might be their last adventure.
They drove in silence. Finn stared resolute at his fingers. It was going to be okay, this wasn't the end. He hoped this wasn't the end.
"What are you planning on doing with the money?"
The nerves, not Finn, had spoken. His question surprised even himself.
Johnston tutted, keeping his eyes on the road. He glanced at Finn and fiddled with the radio before turning it back off.
"Everything," he finally answered. "There would be enough money for Makovsky to leave his wife. We'd finally be able to have a life together. We could run away from here, get his daughter into a good school. You?"
"Yeah, I'd leave here too. Wouldn't need a second glance."
Johnston murmured in agreement, but a strange look passed over his face as he did. Johnston was probably thinking of Vanesa. Vanesa, just her name made Finn's heart drop to his stomach.
He had debated calling and telling her what he was about to do. He craved hearing her voice. He longed for the validation she would give when she tried to talk him out of it.
Would she try to talk him out of it? Maybe—yes, as a friend. That was why he had not called, Finn did not need to hear how much she loved his friendship.
"I'm going to puke," Finn groaned, unable to keep his nerves down.
"Put your head between your legs and shut up. If you puke, you're cleaning out my car."
Johnston blindly swatted at Finn, his eyes stayed on the road. Finn grumbled but stuck his head in between his legs.
Finn's head pounded, unable to keep images of Vanesa out of his head. He closed his eyes and willed himself to think about anything else.
Anything else besides what he was planning on doing. Those where the only things he could think about, Vanesa and the plan he concocted with his friends.
The car screeched to a halt. Finn's jolt forward was painfully stopped by his seatbelt.
He brought his head up, they were here. Finn nodded in solidarity to Johnston. It was time.
Time to act and get what they came for—money.
A few minutes later Rigby and Ostergard pulled up. They were in a much better mood than Finn and Johnston. They were too jovial, it annoyed Finn.
"Will you idiots shut it?!" He cried louder than he intended.
Again there was silence as all three men turned their attention to Finn.
"That's better, back to the task at hand— Johnston has a key and knows the security system better than anyone. He's going to go in and disable the security system. When he's successful he'll send a group text message asking about meeting up on Saturday."
"At which point I'll go up to the second floor of the third window and get our cargo." Ostergard added, interrupting Finn.
Finn nodded, "Don't call it cargo, Ostergard, she has a name."
Ostergard rolled his eyes, "Like hell I'm calling it Mrs. Pookums."
Rigby swung his baseball bat eager to get going.
"Are we sure she's paying ransom for the dog? Her daughter's just a door down." Rigby asked with a particularly aggressive swing.
Johnston caught Rigby's bat mid-swing. His eyes were enraged and threatened.
"She loves that dog more than anything in the world. She'll pay. Leave the daughter out of it."
Johnston shoved the bat hard into Rigby's chest. Rigby stumbled and almost fell, but Ostergard broke his fall.
Finn cleared his throat, and privately relished the attention he was once again given by all three men.
"Sounds like we're ready to get started, Johnston?"
At Finn's inquiry, Johnston nodded and sprinted up towards the gate. Their plan had officially started.
"What's the real plan boss?"
Ostergard asked the moment Johnston was out of earshot.
Finn's lips curled into a smirk. Ostergard and Rigby, practically his henchmen, they knew him too well.
"Mrs. Makovsky doesn't have the money to pay the ransom I want."
"We figured, what's the real plan?"
"You're doing what I told you to, kidnap the dog. We need to keep Johnston busy. He's a rat, and rats need something to naw on—a distraction." Finn could tell Ostergard was unsatisfied with his explanation and waved a hand to stop Ostergard from interrupting him. "However while you're off doing that, Rigby and I will be one house over robbing old Maureen Wallis. She has a safe full of jewelry worth more than any ransom Mrs. Makovsky would pay for her dog."
Rigby chuckled and swung his bat once more. Finn was unsurprised to see he had no qualms with the turn of events.
"Then you and Johnston are driving to my apartment. Got to keep the charade up" Finn continued his explanation, "We'll meet up with you there. After we've put the booty in a storage locker."
Rigby let out a whoop of appreciation, but Ostergard's large face struggled to make sense of Finn's plan. He stood stupidly squinting at Finn and Rigby.
"What if Johnston took the bait and set us up?" He asked.
Finn tried to keep his expression neutral, Ostergard had voiced his own worry. Plans never worked out exactly as they should, something always got messed up somehow.
Take Vanesa for instance, Finn worked up the nerve to get close to her—only to meet her very nice boyfriend Belliston.
No, he shouldn't be thinking of Vanesa right now.
There where more pressing worries.
"Depends on how he gives us up. If it's after we've kidnapped the dog or Mrs Makovsky paid the ransom, we have ways of pinning the blame back on him. If-"
"Stop talking in hypotheticals," Rigby interrupted, "We know how rats operate, he won't betray us tonight, when he can take out more of us tomorrow. Let's move," Rigby said a hint of panic in his voice that Finn had not detected before. They left Ostergard to go do their part in the plan.
Now that his plan was in action, Finn felt the dread in the pit of his stomach build back into anticipation. After months of careful planning, it was happening, They were about to become jewelry thieves.
Finn grinned at Rigby when they reached Maureen Wallis's house. He pulled out the keys he'd nicked from her purse at the pharmacy. With a click, her side door unlocked. It lead directly into her basement.
They silently walked down. Several stairs squeaked under their weight. None of the noise they made would alert Maureen Wallis from her sleep.
The basement was unfinished and filled with boxes so high, Finn supposed it served as an unofficial storage unit. A quick look around at how musky the room felt confirmed to Finn the basement was rarely visited.
"There's so much valuable stuff here, and that's not including the safe we came here for!" Rigby exclaimed in an excited whisper after digging through a nearby box.
Finn nodded and waved him down. "We don't have a lot time, so be quick with anything extra you want."
Maureen Wallis was old, she'd lived through both the Great Depression and World War II. As a result, she'd held onto everything and her safe was not as easy to spot as Finn had hoped. They'd have to search for it. He pulled over a box and began his quest.
Somethings packed away were quite valuable, and some were boxes of old news papers.
After several minutes of digging around, Finn found a box of old jewelry. It wasn't the safe, but it was still a worthwhile find. He set the box aside and kept digging.
Old dresses, good china, and old color tv's later, Finn still was no closer to locating the safe, but he had found something that made him laugh.
"Check this out Rigby, it's spider repellent shampoo! 'Perfect for your beehive'!" Finn stage whispered as he through the shampoo in Rigby's direction.
Before Rigby had a chance to react, Finn's phone buzzed.
Johnston: we need to hang out more. How bout a drink this Saturday?
It was officially crunch time. Finn heard Rigby curse under his breath, that was how he felt. They needed more time to locate the safe.
"Let's start moving the valuable things we have found out to the car. Maureen Wallis will not know we've robbed her, we'll come back for the safe." Finn improvised hurriedly grabbed the box of jewelry he found earlier.
They reached Rigby's car with the box, and a few other small items they could hold when everything fell apart.
"Do you hear that?" Rigby asked abruptly after Finn had placed the box he found in the trunk.
"Hear what?"
"Police sirens," Rigby looked around wildly.
Finn understood, They'd been caught.
It was a race against time, a race that moved in slow motion for Finn. One minute he was racing for the passenger seat. The next, they were flying down the road. Rigby drove impossibly fast, and yet Finn still felt they were out of time.
Rigby clutched the steering wheel so tight, his fingers had gone white. They zoomed past one police cruiser, then another.
"They were waiting for us," Finn said in a daze, unable to keep his eyes off the cars behind them.
Rigby sped up, his eyebrows knitted together in anger.
"That rat wasn't supposed to sell us out this early." He spat increasing his speed. Finn clung to the dashboard, trying to brace himself. They were going too fast.
A horrible feeling came back Finn.
"Ostergard sold us out to Johnston."
Rigby took his eyes off the road, his eyes a bloodshot mess "Ya think?!"
Finn had never seen Rigby this close to tears. The reality of the situation hit Finn, they were dead meat.
Literally.
Neither Finn nor Rigby saw what caused the car to crash.
The inertia caused the car to fly for real, flipping and tumbling over and over again.
It happened too fast for either Rigby or Finn to process what happened. Finn closed his eyes.
He wasn't in a car with Rigby. He was at the state fair with Vanesa, they'd gone last August, on a crappy roller coaster ride.
Vanesa threw her hands in the air, she was laughing. The setting sun had back lit her perfectly. In that moment, she looked like heaven.
Finn could not help the smile that formed as he watched her. He loved her, that was the moment he realized it.
His head was painfully slammed forward, forward and backward and forward again.
That wasn't how the roller coaster ride had been. This memory was all wrong.
All at once he felt like he had been beat up.
But how? Had Vanesa's boyfriend discovered Finn loved her? The pain felt like the handiwork of her boyfriend, Finn hazily determined. Belliston had ruined everything, as usual.
Finn had forgotten about the accident he was in. Unaware he was wedged in a car, bleeding out.
Post Author's Note: I'm planning on releasing the second installment of this story sometime next week, so be on the lookout!
Comments and Reviews for Late Night Insomnia:
dontcrushmysoul said:
Dun dun dun...Cliff hanger!
Fluffy Banana3176:
[+dontcrushmysoul]
I REALLY need to talk to you. Please answer your phone. Or any of my dms.
Fluffy Banana3176 said:
[+RapsRlife]
RapsRlife! I <3 the fresh take you have for Finn. Applause from me.
darkadontel said:
What have you done to me poor Cinnamon roll?!?! (I'm being sarcastic no one attack me)
Finesa4eva said:
I love cliff hangers. Except when they are not resolved. When's chapter two coming?
Udreamtme said:
Why the influx? Not half this many people read RapsRlife's Johnstovsy fic
rapsRlife said:
[+Udreamtme]
Most of them are here to pass time waiting for book 20. You're the true fan, they fake. Dm me any mistakes I need to fix.
Udreamtme said:
[+rapsRlife]
:) always
Mrs Gunn2847 said:
Reading fanfiction is a guilty pleasure I should have partaken of long ago! Who knew?!? Luv this story and wants to read more.
Fluffy Banana3176:
[+Mrs Gunn2847]
Same! I'm seriously thinking about publishing a story of my own.
Mrs Gunn2847 said:
[+Fluffy banana3176]
Do it! Two days ago I would have rolled my eyes, but today I believe in fanfiction.
totesFABwardrobe said:
Like Story, can't wait for more. Commenting because I Read this and felt like some cosmetic event took place as I read. The
Udreamtme said:
[+totesFABwardrobe]
Do you mean 'cosmic', or a makeup expo?
TotesFABwardrobe said:
[+Udreamtme]
Of course I meant cosmic. Auto-correct.
rapsRlife said:
[+totesFABwardrobe]
Haha, comparing my amateur writing to cosmic events is high praise indeed. thank you.
totesFABwardrobe said:
[+rapsRlife]
No. Not your writing. Something special happened in the universe when you posted. I canT explain it—but something IMPORTANT has happened.
rapsRlife said:
[+totesFABwardrobe]
Ok?
. . .
rapsRlife said:
[+totesFABwardrobe]
I'm confused.
You weren't complimenting me?