Grace looked at the numbers on the sheet one more time before picking up the glass and downing the rest of the contents. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and then let out a scream of frustration before throwing the glass at the wall across from her letting it shatter into hundreds of pieces. "Doomed." she muttered," before putting her elbows on her desk and resting her head in her hands. 

The gambling had started out light, a few hundred here, a few hundred there. After the first time in a Casino ages ago, with Gus having the dealer cheat on her behalf...the winning. The endless winning of that night. She had been hooked. And people didn't think a good doctor would have vices. And she didn't smoke, she didn't drink that much. But gambling. The lights, the sounds, the anonymity of it all. The fact that rarely did someone get injured rolling the dice. And now here she was, in the red. 

She was drained, much like her bank account. She was going to lose the office, her condo, her life. Unless she could think of something that would make this all go away with a nice chunk of change in her pocket at the same time. The logical and easiest thing to do would be to ask for a loan, but even if she was destitute and in debt, she still had her god damn pride. She picked up her pen and doodled some ideas on the paper before a brilliant one came to mind. 

She picked up the receiver of the phone and dialed a number she had learned by heart the first week she had moved to Vegas. A voice answered on the other end and Grace said, "Merci, I need your help. Can you come to my office?" 

A friend in need. There were few she trusted in the world, but Grace was one of them. She'd saved Merci's life, saved Kathryn's life, saved Charlie's. Hearing the edge of panic in Gracie's voice, she told her she'd be right there.

And she was. Within minutes, her car pulled up to the Angeletti clinic and she climbed out, checking left and right for any sign of trouble before heading inside. 

"Grace? I'm here!" she called into the empty reception area.

Grace had considered cleaning up the glass, but instead just found a new one and poured some more whiskey into it. "I'm up here." she called out, her voice cracking with emotion before she picked up her glass and took a sip. She knew it'd be rude to drink alone in front of her guest so she slid the glass in front of the seat Merci would probably take and decided to just drink from the bottle instead. She raised it to her mouth, tilted her head back and started swallowing. 

Merci appears in the doorway and stops abruptly at the sight of her friend drinking straight from the bottle.

"Grace? What's wrong?" she asked, spotting a shattered glass on the floor as she surveyed the room. 

"Are you alright?!" she asks, brow furrowed in concern as she stepped further into the room.

Gracie held up a finger and finished drinking before removing the bottle from her face. She set it down and let out a very unladylike burp before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Merci, I'm doomed." she told her friend. Well half told, half wailed. Really, she was being quite dramatic about the whole thing, and the alcohol probably wasn't helping matters. 

Now thoroughly confused, Merci watches as Grace drains the bottle. This wasn't like her at all. Taking up the glass on the desk, she figures she'd better drink that herself before Grace drank that as well and made herself sick. After swallowing the whisky, she set the glass down and laid her hand on the other woman's arm.

"Well I'm here to help you. What can I do?"

Grace glanced at the bottle again and then looked at Merci. "I don't even know what can be done." she said with a frown, "I've ruined myself by fucking gambling," she admitted before putting her head in her hands and staring at her desk. "This building, my condo..." she trailed off, "I've lost it all she finally whispered.

Merci embracing her in a hug. She'd had no idea Grace even gambled. 

"Don't worry about the condo, Hun. The Fountains bungalow is yours, free and clear. I'm moving back there with Charlie, into Augustus' old bungalow next door. I can't live at Lake Mead anymore. It reminds me of him too much," she says, sniffing hard to clear away the tears that are gathering in her eyes. "We'll be next neighbors!" She says, trying for cheerful. 

"As for this place...well, you could always cash in on the insurance if something....happened to it." She says, looking at Grace steadily so that she fully understands the meaning behind her words.

"Poof," she says, her hands gesturing in a little explosion.

Grace pushed her hair out of her face and narrowed her eyes at her friend, "But then I still lose my office." she said with a frown and a shake of her head. "I don't know why I'm being hesitant, it'll get me the money and I'll be able to rebuild." she tapped her finger against her bottom lip and then reached for the phone. "I suppose we should see what Kathryn thinks of all this, eh?" she asked as she started to dial the number. "Kat, Merci and I need you." she said on the phone, refusing to really explain what was going on, rather saying, "We're plotting and scheming." as a way to get the woman intrigued enough to show up. 

There was no answer on the phone and she sighed replacing the receiver back on the stand. "Well damn," she said before reaching for the bottle and taking another swig. She looked at Merci and frowned, "I don't want to lose the medical office." She said to her, "Too much money had been put into it, and I would die without it." she said, knowing she was being overly dramatic but she was a bit drunk and she'd had a hellish few days. She put her hand on the bottle again ready to start chugging away when her eyes lit up with excitement, "On the other hand," she told the woman, "I'm not overly attached to my restaurant..." she trailed off, raising her eyebrows expectantly. 

"Ooohhhh," Merci breathed. "Yeah. Let's go cook a nice huge meal, pack it all up for takeout, and make it look like a grease fire!" She says excitedly. This idea greatly appealed to both the foodie and the pyro in her. 

"But. You know. Your show. If you've got a better idea, I'm all for it," she says, grinning.

For the first time in a long time Gracie felt a bit of hope. She had forgotten what that felt like, and now she was slightly ashamed of how she had behaved. She reached across the desk and rested her hand on Merci's "Thank you." she told her friend, she was trying to come across serious but a high pitched hiccup ruined the moment, but only slightly. "Well, Shall we call in some re-enforcements?" she asked as she picked up the phone yet again. "Perhaps a finally dinner and drink at the place, and then... " she made a motion with her one hand, "Kaboom!" 

Merci picks up the phone and makes a series of calls. She gets through to some, hits an answering service on others, and some continue to ring and ring. In the end, she's called The_Courier, Joe_Scalise, Tacky, Decypha, and Stormwaver. 

"Let's see what we can do," she says with a smile.

Stormwaver was resting at her place, watching T.V when her phone rang. Curious, she answered her phone and grinned when she realized it was Merci. Stormwaver had recently joined the family, but she heard good things about her.

"Hi, Merci. What's up?"

Stormwaver sat there for a moment nodding before grinning.

"Sure thing. I'll head over and help out. See ya, Merci."

With that, she hung up. Stormwaver never set places on fire, preferring to just rob it, but if Gracie needed help, she would glady assist.

She put on gray fedora and coat and walked out.

After receiving the call from Merci, finding out that Gracie is in a bit of a distressing situation, he rushes over straight away to help a friend in need and give his two cents on what she should do. As he arrives, he is pleased to see that she wasn't in a bad a state as what he was expecting. Merci's idea must have cheered her up a little. Although, Gracie looks up at him with a look of concern on her face for what he might think. D returns a look back at her with a smile in his eyes.

"Gracie... Merci told me what's happened. I'm not here to lecture you, love." He says to her as he walks over and gives her a little comforting hug.

"So, we're going to burn the place to the ground? Sounds like fun. If it helps, I have my fingers in a lot of pies." He adds, looking at Gracie as he mentions fingers - reminiscing from his last 'check-up with the doctor'. 

"I will be able to arrange a much larger payout, totally untraceable. How does that sound?" D says to them both.

Joe walked into the office with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. Within the bag he had his dark clothing and ski mask in case any of their work tonight needed stealth as well a few thousand dollars in bribe money in case he needed to make anyone look the other way tonight. 

"Gracie, sorry to hear your in a pinch - but dont' worry, we'll be sure and set it straight. Oh, and after the place burns I can pay a visit to the local fire marshal - make sure that the investigation into the cause of the fire is limited if you take my meaning."

Merci smiles and nudges Grace with her elbow. 

"See? No one here is gonna let anything happen to our Gracie," she says. "Should we wait a while longer, see who else shows, or should we leave a note or something for the others to meet us?"

The man they called The Courier answers the phone and is pleased to hear @Merci's voice at the other end. He listens to her silently for a while before talking. "An arson job eh? Count me in, but I hope we will stick by our old agreement? I get to pick the place clean first." he says over the phone, chuckling.

A few hours later, he walks into the room, and sees @Merci, @Gracie and @Joe_Scalise already present. Setting the sack he had slung over his shoulder down, he sweeps the hat off his head and bows before them, as an entertainer would before beginning his performance. "So fellas." he tells them, his eyes gleaming with eagerness. "What's the plan?" 

Gracie looked at everyone who had come to her rescue and burst into tears. Part of it was the overflowing emotion and part of it was the alcohol. But she didn't care. She cried and went around the room to hug the people who had showed up, "God damn," she finally said wiping her eyes, "I'm a lucky girl." She looked at The_Curiour and eyed the bag, before saying, "I think we should all head over to the Saving grace, have a few drinks and then Merci and I can head into the kitchen to make some food..." she trailed off thinking about the first day she had opened her doors and how some of these people had been there that day too. "A final farewell, and then we torch it." she looked around, "Unless someone else has a better plan?" She asked. 

Joe hugged Gracie tightly and rubbed her back comfortingly before she moved on

"What you didn't think we would let anything bad happen to our Gracie did ya? I think your plan is perfect, simple and fun! "