Fic: How to Survive a Recession (Epilogue)

[piecesof_reeses]

Every evening, Victoria Asher checks her mail at precisely 5:30, right after she gets home from work. She usually trashes all of it; no one uses snail mail anymore, so it’s all just junk.


This evening, she almost throws all of the mail into the recycling bin without looking, but a slightly dented corner of an envelope catches her eye, and she pulls it out of the pile. Her name and address is handwritten on the front, and there’s no return address.


The slanted, cramped handwriting looks slightly familiar, so Victoria slides her finger under the flap to break the seal, frowning to herself. Maybe it’s an extremely early holiday card.


But no, there’s a letter inside, a handwritten one, and Victoria blinks down at it, thrown. She hasn’t seen a handwritten letter in years, probably. It half looks like it belongs in a museum, or like its delivery to her was delayed by a decade.


Intrigued now, she quietly walks over to the couch, sits down, and begins to read.


My dearest Vicky-T, it begins, and Victoria starts smiling automatically, the corners of her lips tugging irrepressibly upwards. She knows who this is.


Times are pretty good, it continues. I know you probably think I just made a stupidass choice, running away with some fugitives when I wasn’t even involved in the crime. But running from the authorities really isn’t as bad as the movies make it out to be. It’s not like we’re top priority. I mean, it was just a simple scam. Anyway, we’re keeping a low profile, in case the police are still looking for us. But it’s pretty awesome, just surfing the waves, drinking with Bilvy, and trying to lose Dead Eyes.


Victoria rolls her eyes to herself; Gabe probably thinks he’s being incredibly clever by using these code names. Quickly, she flips the envelope back over and scans it, before grinning. It was postmarked in Hawaii.


I almost succeeded in losing him a few times, too, the letter goes on, but Dead Eyes always seems to catch up, and anyway, Bilvy pouts if I tell him the wrong directions too many times in one day.


The sunshine’s fantastic here. Bilvy got horribly sunburned the first few days because he refused to use sunscreen, but now I just put it on for him, and that’s much more fun, if you know what I mean. ;) You wouldn’t believe the prices around here; apparently, the recession has put quite a dent in tourism, and now the people here are desperate for any customers. So our money should stretch pretty far, and if not, we can always sell Dead Eyes. I’ll just tell Bilvy he was eaten by a shark.


Give the others a fangs up for me, and remind Pete that he still owes me last month’s paycheck. I’ll come to collect it, one day.


Take care of yourself, Vicky-T.


And then, at the very bottom: Love, The Cobra.


Victoria sits there for a few moments, savoring the feel of the letter in her hands. And then, still smiling, she gets up and runs it through the paper shredder.




End.



________________________________________________________________________
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm very sorry if my villain!Alex made anyone upset or uncomfortable. I'm sure that he is actually a very sweet person, and that he just saves his most annoying thoughts for public forums like Twitter. :D


All feedback is very much appreciated! ♥

Comments

[chaoticallyclev.livejournal.com]

okay, now i'm commenting here too. yay! epilogue! your other otp sneaking in! carden's dead eyes!
snail mail. i would so send snail mail to you if you didn't live just on the other side of town and that wouldn't be a massive waste of time, money, and resources. and because you wouldn't be able to read it./ :P
uh...yeah, i think that's it. yup. tired. just, you know, read my last comment of epic proportions on the previous entry. i think it's longer than if i'd commented on every entry and put them all together. so. i still win. at life. yeah.
that is all :x
have some dorky panic people which includes spencer in a parka!

[xelfishax.livejournal.com]

NAHHNNNNGGGH.

That was an zombie-moan of appreciation.

Loved the fic!

-goes to put in memories- <3

[sharpisignature.livejournal.com]

I guess I didn't have to ponder for too long lol. I am so happy you gave Gabe and ending with BIlvy. Poor gabe with him being stuck with Creepy!Carden. I feel for him. But I can't believe this is over! It needs to last forever and ever. Seriously. Okay, I'm off to put it in my memories and read it again tomorrow. Thank you so much for writing this.

[sweetrevenge418.livejournal.com]

Dude, nonfat vanilla latte is calling.
xD
I LOVED THAT. That was GENIUS!

[submissionadict.livejournal.com]

so, i have the flu right? but i got intruiged by the title of this, and kinda read the whole thing in one go, and i must say, i love it, and i don't feel so shitty anymore, so thankyou

<3


exesandohesxo

[inlovewithnight.livejournal.com]

This was really, really fun.

[starsandsands.livejournal.com]

Hi, I kind of love you.
♥_♥

[moku-youbi.livejournal.com]

How does this not have a million comments? I absolutely loved this. Just the right amount of hurty, angsty Brendon balanced with seriously hot sex and a funny, interesting plot. Too often bandom ignores plot, but what you've written is solid, so congrats.

Awesome fic, all around!

[prairiedaun.livejournal.com]

Oh dude, I had so much fun reading this. Thank you!

[cunningplan.livejournal.com]

I love this a lot! I spent most of the work day sneaking bits and pieces :D Very cute, and definitely will go on my re-read list :)

[fannyt.livejournal.com]

Dude, this is awesome. There are so many little things I loved about it, like this throwaway line:

A couple of cars honk, and Jon waves at them.

That made me giggle out loud, and I don't even really know why. And it's just one of many, many lines that had me curling my toes with glee. Brendon's coffee runs! Spencer's god-like receptionist powers! Jon's worry about having to take off his flip-flops! Ryan's dreadful monotone! And the rest of the cast!

Recession is hip again. ;)

[bulpwithlove.livejournal.com]

baaaahhhhhh I loved it. Super awesome fabulous.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

This whole thing is a masterwork...it's been way too long since we got a good ensemble piece. Well done you!

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was really fun!

[piano-paranoia.livejournal.com]

The world kept getting in the way of me reading this, but fuck the world, I still finished it! Let me tell you how epicly awesome it was!

First of all, I'm a ryden gal myself with only slight brencer tendencies, but oh my goodness this was great! From the starwars to the mumbling to Ryan hitting Alex in the face! It's all pretty fucking awesome =]

Ryan was kind of my favorite in this. I wish he'd put gay porn on my computer!

ok well now I'm rambling but I just had to let you know how much I love this and you did an amazing job! I just wish I could've commented sooner!

[sperrywink]

This was really fun and entertaining! I loved Brendon's POV.

[patdluveremily.livejournal.com]

So I had been avoiding this fic for awhile for no reason at all.

I now realize that was a very stupid idea because this was awesome! :)

Is it bad that Carden is still my favorite member of TAI...? Don't get me wrong, I love the rest a lot, too. I just kinda like Carden best. I honestly have no clue why.

But yea, I loved all the Brencer and I had to keep myself from bursting out laughing when Ryan said he stuffed the bank records down his pants. I'm happy I spent a few hours reading this. :) (I'm a slow reader)