Trouble in a Tank Top

Ande was shaken awake by a fully dressed Tony. She mumbles something to herself as he helps her out of bed and into clean clothes. Her hips hurt, and her skin feels dirty from sweat, but something in her also feels renewed, too.

Tony picks up her bag and gives her a quick kiss before walking out of the room. Ande follows behind, still half asleep. Jaxin and Natalie are sitting in the living room, cups of tea in their hands and the television on at a low volume. The couple looks up at them. Somehow they know of Ande blush and curl up into herself, wrapping her arms around herself.

"You guys headed out?"

Tony nods and puts down Ande's bag as Jaxin gets up to hug his best friend. The two men take a moment to themselves. Nat smiles at Ande and gives her a small hug.

"Thank you for helping me with Ruby. You'll be missed. She's going to miss her napping buddy."

Ande feels a little teary eyed, and she knows she's going to miss the little baby with all her heart. Ande takes a deep inhale of oxygen before pulling away from Nat to move onto Jaxin. The New Zealander wraps his arms around Ande and hugs her tight. Ande smiles sadly.

"You take good care of him, Ande. Don't break his heart. Please, don't break it."

Ande sighs and squeezes her arms around his waist.

"You have nothing to worry about, Jaxin."

The two friends pull away and look at Tony. Jaxin pats Ande's back before going to sit back on the couch with Natalie. The baby monitor is quiet other than the occasional static crack. Ande gives them one last smile before following Tony out of their home and into the dark, empty studio. Tony looks back at her, keeping his thoughts to himself before going down to the garage.

Tony's black truck is waiting for them. He pulls a pair of jingling keys from his pocket and unlocks the doors. He places their bags into the back seat before climbing into the driver's spot.

"How long is the drive?" Ande asks, curling up in the seat after stretching her seat belt across her body. Tony starts the ignition and he presses a small button to make the garage door raise. The sun has already gone away for the day, and the lights of North Park are shining like stars.

"It's about eight hours, maybe seven since there will be little traffic. It just started snowing in the mountains." Tony tells her, and she nods, looking out the front windshield to watch as the buildings thinned out as Tony pulled onto the highway. "You can go back to sleep, Ande."

"I don't want you to sit in silence." Ande yawns but tries to hide it with her hand. Tony smiles softly at her before turning the radio up to play as quiet background music.

"Go back to sleep."

Ande wants to protest, but she's already half asleep before she can get the motivation to argue. Tony keeps his eyes on the road, but glances at Ande every few minutes. She's sound asleep by the time they're out of San Diego.

SURVIVE

"What do you want to do?" Ande asked as Tony took her hand in his. They began to slowly walk through the shopping mall area. He smiles at her as he looks through the choices he had in the food court for a quick afternoon snack.

"What's your favorite color?" he asks, pulling them to stand in the short line at a burger joint. A couple of teenagers stood boredly behind the counter taking orders. Ande looked at the menu and found none of it appetizing.

"Red," she answers, putting her free hand in her pocket as she steps forward with Tony. He orders a plate of onion rings with his honey mustard and a large strawberry milkshake for them to share.

"Mine is green," he tells her before stuffing his mouth with a greasy onion ring. Ande smirks and shakes her head. She takes a sip of the milkshake, letting the half-frozen concoction slid down her throat. Tony swallows his onion ring. "You ask a question now."

Ande thinks about it, handing over the milkshake when Tony reached for it.

"Favorite place to be?"

Tony answered without hesitation. "With you."

Ande stops walking, and looks up at Tony. He looks at her, his mouth still wrapped around the straw of his milkshake. Tony lets go of the straw and swallows the flavored treat. He's confused of why she stopped. All he did was answer her question, after all. She smiles at him and presses a quick, chaste kiss to his full lips. The two have only kissed a total of five times and Tony takes full advantage of feeling her lips on his. After a few seconds, Ande pulls away but her smile is permanent.

She was going to answer with sitting in a hammock since she founds them extremely relaxing, but finds it wouldn't fit the occasion, so she simply doesn't answer. Tony is slightly dazed from the kiss and allows a grin take over his face. Ande steals the milkshake back and takes a brain-freeze inducing gulp. She cringes but Tony only teases her about it.

The two find themselves in the locally owned record store, riffling through vinyls in the clearance rack. Tony exclaims happily as he finds an original Blink-182 "Untitled" case behind a Beatles' album. Ande smiles as he looks over the two covers, acting like a kid who lost his first tooth.

"You are so easily pleased, Tony," Ande muses. Tony looks over at her and sticks out his tongue.

"At least I'm easy to get Christmas presents for."

Ande is slightly surprised at him as he casually hints that they will be together by the time the Christmas holiday got to that time on the calender. Tony doesn't catch her expression; he kept his focus on the CD he was debating about buying. Ande stole an onion ring and another swallow of the milkshake. Tony put the disk back, deciding against getting it. He walked away to go look at the new shipment. Ande grabs the CD and quickly goes to pay for it.

The guy behind the counter is covered in tattoos even though he's not a day over twenty-one, and his hair reminds her a lot like Mike's; shaved on one side and long on the other.

"Great choice," he says, winking at Ande before ringing her up and bagging the CD. "That'll be thirteen ninety-seven."

Ande hands him a twenty, receives her change back and goes to find Tony. The introvert guitarist is elbow deep in a bin holding nineties' punk rock. He looks up at her and eyes the black bag, trying to see what she bought.

"What'd you get, Ande?"

"We'll listen to it in the car, Tone."

She holds out her hand for him, letting him know she's ready to go. Tony pulls out of the little rabbit hole he's created and takes her offered hand while trying to grab the bag in the other hand to see what she bought. Ande holds it just out of reach and grins at him.

"You'll see it when we get back to the truck, Tony."

Tony gives in, but he doesn't fully give up. Every few minutes, even though he knows Ande is waiting for his next move, he tries to make a grab for the bag. They end up looking like a couple of fools in front of the audience they have acquired while in the mall.

"What's your full name?" Tony asks, continuing with his earlier game of Twenty Questions. Ande drinks the last of the milkshake before answering.

"Ana Nicole Denise Edwards."

Tony stops and blinks a few times looking at his girlfriend. Ande doesn't make eye contact, feeling her cheeks warm up.

"My initials spell out 'Ande.' I was named after my grandmother. She died about a month before I was born. I've just always gone by Ande, though."

Tony swallows the saliva that had built up in his mouth.

"Antonio Cesar Perry."

Ande giggles.

"That is such a Mexican name."

Tony smiles and kisses the side of her head as he makes one last reach for the bag.

"I guess."

SURVIVE

Ande woke up to the right side of her face freezing cold from being pressed against the window and a crick in her neck. She stretched her arms forward, popping her back and shoulders before rolling her neck to loosen up the tight muscles. Tony's truck was rolling down a gravel road as snow fell from the night sky.

"Sleep well?" Tony asks softly. Ande nods but still sleepy, she curls her legs up into the chair and leans against the left side of the passenger seat to watch Tony. Glancing at the clock on the radio, she sighs. Ande had slept for almost five hours and she still felt sluggish and sore from earlier that day.

"I dreamt of the day I bought that Blink CD for you." Ande tells him, her eyes half lidded. She didn't see his smile as he took one hand off the wheel to press a button on the radio. The beginning chords of "Feeling This" begin to play. Ande looks at him, surprised.

"You mean this CD?"

Ande smiles and nods. Tony moves his hand from the radio to Ande's knee. He gives it a comforting squeeze, however doesn't move his hand, and just simply keeps it there. Another hour passes with the two softly singing along with the CD. Ande has taken Tony's hand in her own, running her thumbs across his tattooed knuckles. The CD restarts, but neither make a move to turn it off or change to different music since the two describe this album as the one that brought them closer.

"Did you mean it?" Ande asked. Tony looks at her.

"Mean what?"

"That day at the mall, when I asked you what your favorite place was... you said you were happiest when with me. Did you mean it?"

Tony answers immediately. "Yes, of course! Do you not believe me?"

Ande shakes her head. "No, no, it's not that. I believe you, I do. It's just... we'd only been dating for a month and the answer caught me off guard is all."

Tony doesn't reply. Ande slightly regrets saying anything now. The couple sits in silence for the last hour of the ride. The snow had lightened up and the snow that had already fallen crunched with the gravel under the tires. Ande watches the road get thinner and thinner until the only thing left of a path is an opening between trees. There are a few turn offs but then there's nothing as Tony keeps driving.

It's close to three in the morning, and Ande is feeling hunger begin to take over her belly. Her stomach grumbles quietly, not loud enough to be heard over the music nor the crunch of gravel and snow.

Finally, Tony turns off into an opening between two trees that is just big enough for his truck to fit through. After two miles, Tony pulls the truck into an almost snowed in garage. The door goes down after Tony has the ignition turned off. A door to the right opens, and Ande watches as Mike's tall, lanky form comes into view. He has his right hand down by his side, a hand gun resting in the palm.

"Mike," Tony practically scolds the older male, pulling their bags from the backseat. "Don't scare Ande."

Ande has yet to move from the truck, letting the situation fully hit her conscience for the first time. She was now in a house full of criminals, one of which she was in love with, hidden in the mountains until they could get out of the state. Or, maybe they would have to get out of the country if it came down to it.

"Ande?"

The redhead turns and looks at her boyfriend. He has their bags on his shoulders, holding the passenger door open for her to get out.

"Come on, baby, I know you've got to be hungry right now. I'll make you something while the girls help you get settled."

"The girls?" she questions. Tony nods.

"Yeah, Jess and Frenchi are here."

Ande, for something odd reason, feels slightly relieved knowing this. She moves out of the truck, wrapping her arms around herself as the cold from outside sneaks into the garage. Tony guides Ande over to the door with his hand on the small of her back. Mike moves out of their way before shutting the door and putting his hand back into the waistband of his jeans.

She eyes the weapon, but knows not to fear any one in the house. Mike walks back over to the drafting table in the middle of the kitchen. Almost every surface in what should be the dining hall is covered with some type of gun or a large black duffle bag that Ande knows is holding thousands, if not millions of dollars.

Tony drops their bags onto the couch in what should be the living room. He groans and grabs at the white bandage still on his left bicep. Ande turns around to watch him cringe before going over to grab a bottle of some type of liquor that sits on the table between Vic, Mike, and Casey.

"Where's Jaime?" Ande asks, looking for his spiky hair. She knows the girls must be upstairs sleeping at this hour. A blast of heat comes from the vent on the ceiling to raise the temperature of the house. It sends goosebumps running up her arms.

"Out getting supplies. He should be back by dawn," Casey answers. Ande stands awkwardly in the living room, watching as Tony tries to numb the pain from the bullet wound as the other three males bent over a laptop and a stack of files. She fiddles with the bottom of her shirt.

"Ande," Tony calls her, his words slurring near the end. She looks up and watches him walk forward while carrying the large bottle of alcohol. The amount had decreased drastically since Tony had first picked up the bottle. "C'mon, baby, lemme make you something to eat," he says, wrapping an am around her shoulders as he leads her into the kitchen. Ande shakes her head and reroutes them to going up the stairs. Tony doesn't pay much attention.

Once to the top, Tony takes another large swallow and lets the warmth take over his body. Ande helps him not stumble and fall, knowing he would take her down with him.

"Which room is yours?"

Tony points to the first door on the left. They stumble in together. She sits Tony down on the bed and takes the now empty bottle of alcohol from Tony to sit it on the bedside table. Ande helped him out of his clothes, simply leaving him in his boxers before moving him to be fully in the bed. Tony passed out in seconds. Ande pressed a small kiss to Tony's forehead and left the room. Never had Ande seen anyone down that much alcohol so fast. It couldn't be even remotely healthy.

Down the stairs, Ande went over to their bags and shuffled through looking for her pair of sweat pants.

"Ande."

She looks up, pulling her pants from the duffle bag. Vic walks out of the kitchen, holding a plate with two made sandwiches on it.

"I heard Tony say something about making you something to eat, but I knew the second he picked up that bottle that wasn't going to happen."

Ande gives him a small smile. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

Slowly, Ande was beginning to feel like she was apart of this crazy family.