Cop Magnet

by Dark Lady Eris

Vince saw the red and blue lights in his rearview mirror. Dom always gave Vince a hard time about just how many times he had been stopped in the past. Cop magnet, Dom called him. VINCE/BRIAN DON'T LIKE DON'T READ

Just a one-shot. I like certain parts of this story, but I'm not in love with it. Hopefully somebody likes it :) I don't own the Fast and the Furious franchise, any plots, or characters. Obviously if I could own anything it would be a kickass Skyline so I didn't have to cruise around in my Chevy Equinox. I don't have beta, so I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes. Vince/Brian don't like, don't read.

Vince saw the red and blue lights in his rearview mirror and let out a loud curse. It wasn't the first time he had been pulled over, Dom always gave Vince a hard time about just how many times he had been stopped in the past. He told Vince that he could be driving right beside him going twenty over the speed the he was, and it would still be Vince that ended up on the side of the road getting a ticket. Cop magnet, Dom called him.

Vince knew the routine by now, he reached over into the glove compartment and pulled out his registration, got his license out of his wallet, and had the window rolled down before the cop was even out of his car.

He watched as the patrol car door opened and the cop stepped out. Even just looking in the rearview mirror Vince could tell this wasn't the usual looking officer that pulled him over. Every other cop he had seen was older, little plump in the middle (to many doughnuts), most of them balding, or at least had a slight receding hairline. This guy however was a blonde bombshell, the closer he got to Vince's car the more muscle he could see pulling at the man's uniform. The shirt was tight, and it looked like it was painted on. His hair wasn't a style Vince would have pegged for a cop, he had short bleach blonde curls, and looked like he belonged on a surf board.

When the cop finally made it to Vince's car the man couldn't help but to feel a little bothered about how attractive the officer was. The cop pulled off his sunglasses and if he was attractive before he was down right fucking gorgeous when Vince got a look at his face and stunning blue eyes.

"You know how fast you were going son?" A deep voice that sounded like a purr of an engine to Vince said.

Vince shot the man an incredulous look, he didn't look very old, in fact he looked like he was younger than Vince. He let out a small snort and saw the man's eyes flash with amusement, two can play that game Vince thought. "No officer," he purred.

The cop gave him a disapproving look, but the amusement still lingered in the corner of his eyes, so Vince was pretty sure it was all for appearances.

"You were going 60 in a 30, license and registration please."

Vince handed them over immediately and if the guy was thrown off by the fact they were already in Vince's hand he didn't show it.

The man looked over his license but once again this differed from his usual run in with law as he didn't take them back to his car to run it. Which Vince was thankful about, he had a lot of unpaid tickets.

"Nice car Vincent," the man purred out instead, letting Vince's full name drag out slowly. He handed back over the two things.

"It's just Vince actually," he said with a smirk, "and thanks."

"Right," he said with a grin that made him even more attractive than he already was in, if that was possible. "You go two options here Vince, I could walk back to my car and run your info, take you in for the several unpaid tickets I'm sure you have, of course that just creates more dreadfully boring paper work for me, and I rather skip that. Option number two, would probably be a lot better for the both of us, you step out of your car and pop your hood."

Vince blinked slowly, when they guy started to talk about options that was not where he had seen this going, but a cop being more interested in what was under his hood than handing out a ticket was sexy as hell.

Vince reached down and pulled the lever and the hood made a clicking sound, the officer stepped back to let him out of the car.

He smirked when he got out of the car and saw the other man's eyes stray up and down his body. Vince wasn't vein, but he knew he was good looking, built, nice looking face, and his tattoo had always been something that drew everyone's attention. It was certainly drawing the attention of the guy standing in front of him.

"Like what you see officer?" Vince asked smugly.

The man pointed to the front of the car, "I don't know haven't looked yet."

Vince smirked; this was one time he wasn't going to regret being pulled over. He walked to the front of his car and pulled the hood up. He hadn't even put the hood prop in place before the man was over at the side peering in.

When Vince looked over he noticed that all the cocky cop routine was gone, the man was staring down at his engine with a seriousness that only someone with a massive appreciation for cars could only have.

"You might have chosen the wrong career path if you're this interested in a racing car." Vince told the man, comfortable with letting that information slip. He had already seen the illegal mods Vince had by now, he would know the truth.

"Don't I know it man." He said seriously, "gets my ass in trouble all the time."

Vince could believe it the man looked like he was made of trouble.

"So you race?" The man nodded and stood up. "How does that work with you pulling over racers?"

The man snorted, "I'm not actually a patrol cop," he said and Vince tensed. They guy had just said he wasn't a real cop, and Vince just realized for the first time that he was standing on the side of a deserted road with what could be a psycho for all he knew, a psycho with a gun on his hip. The blonde man let out a laugh at seeing the apprehension on Vince's face. "I'm still a cop man, just not a patrol cop, I'm a homicide detective. Just filling in for a guy in a different apartment."

Vince relaxed his tensed shoulders and let out a laugh at his own ridiculous paranoia. "So you're saying you don't usually hunt the streets for good looking guys driving nice looking cars?" Vince flirted, he didn't care if the guy was a cop, he was hot, a smart ass, and he got that heated look that Vince could appreciate when he looked down at a motor.

"Nah, there is a lot people out on leave of some type or another in a different department," he said while leaning causally against Vince's door. Vince could feel the start of arousal seeping in, at seeing the man leaning up against his car. "So three days ago I was sent over to help out, honestly this shit is boring, and my command knows I think so. It's why I'm pretty sure I'm being punished. I haven't had much excitement in the last three days, so when I saw you speeding past, couldn't help myself, what a better way to starve off the boredom than to look at nice car."

Vince snorted, "punished? What for?"

"An out of control high speed car chase in downtown L.A., I caught the guy, but I cost the city a lot of tax dollars." He said with a smirk like he didn't feel bad about it, like it had been worth it.

"So you didn't just pull me over because I'm good looking?" Vince said with a mock pout.

"I never said that, what was it you said good looking guy in a nice looking car, could be my thing. What about you?"

Vince shook his head in amusement, "honestly cop has never really been my thing, and I'm a racer after all."

Brian nodded his head and didn't look put off, like he was use to it.

"But I think you could be my thing." Vince said with a smirk.

"I'd offer to buy you dinner after I get off, but off duty doesn't make me any less of a cop." Making it clear to Vince where he stood when it came to his job.

"I'm buying," Vince said to make his point of not caring clear as well.

"Alright," Brian said with a smile. "I get off at 7."

"There is an Italian restaurant on 5th and Elm, you know it?" Brian nodded. "I'll see you there at 8." He said with a grin.

"Try to keep to the speed limit Vince, hate for another cop to pull you over and steal you away." He laughed.

Vince let out a laugh on his own, "have you seen the guys that usually patrol around here?"

Brian smirked, "yeah, I've been seeing a lot of them all this week, you're lucky you only see them on rare occasions, some of them are handsy." He said while lifting up his hands and wiggling his fingers.

Vince laughed and walked back over to his car, and Brian smirked as he got back in.

"So do a get a name before I take you out?" He questioned.

"Brian O' Conner." Vince nodded with a smile it suit him. "I'm letting you off with a warning sir," Brian said as Vince got back in his car and buckled his seatbelt back. "You might not get off so easy next time."

"Oh I'm counting on it Officer O' Conner."

Vince opened the door and was hit with smell of whatever Mia was making for dinner. He didn't see anyone in living room so he went into the kitchen.

"Hey," he called out to Mia, Dom, and Letty while putting a twelve pack in the fridge.

"Where you been?" Dom asked. "You were gone for too long for just a beer run."

Vince shrugged and hoped it looked casual enough, "got pulled over."

"You get a ticket again?" Letty asked with a laugh.

"Nah talked my way out of it. You know me I'm just a natural charmer." Charmed a hot cop right into having dinner with him.

Dom nodded, but his smirk let Vince know just what he thought about the man being pulled over once again.

"Smells good, Mia." Vince said to change the subject before Dom could ask any more questions and before he started in with jokes about Vince's cop luck.

"Thanks, should be ready in about an hour."

"Oh," Vince said kind of off kilter, maybe the food hadn't been a good subject change. "I got some stuff I need to take care of tonight."

Everyone looked up at Vince in shock, and yeah even he could admit that him turning down food was a little suspicious.

"Stuff?" Dom asked.

"Yeah, I'm going to go take a shower."

Letty snorted, "you mean date then."

Vince gave a jerky nod, and retreated down to the bathroom in his basement room. He didn't really want anyone to ask him any questions about his date. He wasn't sure how anyone would react to the fact that Brian was a he, and that he was a cop.

He wasn't going to lie per-say, but honestly this was going to be their first date, and Vince wasn't going to blow a hole in the normalcy of what they knew about him. A - That Vince likes chicks, and B- Vince hates cops.

Being attracted to a man wasn't surprising to him, he had been so before, not enough to go one a real date with anyone, but enough to experiment.

The lack of the surprise however might not be the teams reaction, Vince had kept his experimenting on a very private level.

He got in the shower, and went through the motions quickly, he wasn't in any hurry, had plenty of time, but he had never been one for long showers.

He got out dried off and pulled on pair of black boxer briefs. He walked over to his closet and decided to dress a little nicer than his usual choice of a t-shirt.

He pulled out a dark red button up that he honestly hadn't worn in quite a while. It was wrinkled as hell, and Vince was shit with an iron. He sighed as he picked up a nice pair of jeans that weren't torn or worn from days spent working in the shop and pulled them on. He threw a tight black undershirt on and picked back up the wrinkled red button up. He was going to get all kind of shit for this if he couldn't catch Mia by herself. He wadded the shirt into his hand and walked up the stairs. Dom and Letty had moved into the living room, and were playing a video game with Jesse and Leon.

"Heard you got pulled over, shitty luck man," Leon said as he passed.

"Yeah," Vince grunted and kept walking. It wasn't actually shitty luck at all this time.

When he made it into the kitchen he saw Mia sitting at the table reading. "Mia," he whispered.

Mia looked up from her book in amusement, as she usually did when Vince tried to be sneaky about something.

"Can you iron my shirt for me please," he said really quietly. "I'll owe you one."

"You owe me like twenty already." She said in a whisper also.

"Please Mia," he said hoping she would take pity on him since he had said please twice already.

"Alright," she said with a smirk. Vince passed over the shirt and watched as her smirk only got bigger. "A button up, not a t-shirt, and you want it ironed. They must have made quite an impression on you Vince."

"Something like that." Something exactly like that, Vince thought.

He watched as Mia got the ironing board out and set it and the iron up.

"Where you going?"

Damn it, Mia asking questions was normal, but she always had a way of reading way more in between the lines of simple yes and no's than a normal person. A skill that came in handy when your brother was Dominic man of a few words Toretto. "That Italian place on Elm."

"That's a nice place," she said with a smile as she put the iron down for the first time. "You getting flowers too?"

"Definitely not." Vince could just see the look on Brian's face if he did, it would be amusing, maybe a thought for later. Later, Vince was already thinking past the first date, which was something he never did. Hell he usually didn't think of a first date at all, only the first fuck which was more times than not the last.

"What you reading?" He asked to change the subject.

Mia went into a long reply about the medical terminology book she was reading, and honestly Vince didn't understand most of it, but he listened just the same.

Talking to Mia had once been hard, a few years ago when he was still trying to get her to see him as something more than Dom's best friend. It was easy now, now that he had forgotten all about the crush he had on her, and settled into the relationship of another honorary brother.

"Sounds intense," he commented when she started talking about a two hundred question final.

"Yeah but I think I will do alright." She picked the shirt off the board and held it out for Vince to take. He grabbed it and kissed Mia's cheek in thanks.

Vince slipped the shirt on and scowled at the buttons in indecision. "Buttoned or not?"

"Wow," she said. "Ironed shirt, nice restaurant, you fretting over buttons, must be serious."

Vince sighed, "This is just the first date Mia, but I would like to look nice, so could you answer the question?"

"Buttoned, but leave four undone." She said while folding up the ironing board.

"Thanks," he grinned and did just as she said.

"Wear your nicer shoes, not your boots."

"Alright," he said in agreement. "If you could..."

"Keep it between us, yes surprisingly enough I got that all by myself when you came in here whispering."

Vince grinned again and gave her another kiss on the cheek. "You're the best."

"Don't forget it."

Vince walked quickly through the living room so he didn't gain any attention, and went back to his room to find the nice shoes Mia was speaking about. He put them on, and ran a comb through his hair. He slipped on his watch and belt, and sprayed a bit of cologne on.

He looked at his watch and saw it was only seven, it was too early to go get a table, but he could drive around for a bit. It was better than staying there and getting a ribbing, or a question fest.

He grabbed his keys out of the pant's pocket on the floor and walked back up into the main part of the house.

Leon let out a loud whistle when he saw him. "Damn dawg, you look nice all cleaned up and shit. Who you trying to impress?"

A sexy as fuck cop, who looks like walking sex in a tight uniform, loves the look of an engine, and has a smart ass mouth that he wanted to kiss.

He only shrugged, "I'll be back later."

"You sure about that?" Dom asked him while looking over his state of dress curiously.

"Yeah, probably, maybe, well bye."

The restaurant he chose was small, and never very crowded, it was the perfect place for a date really, no loud sounds to disrupt conversation. He sat down at a table by the window, and watched the parking lot closely. He was curious about what Brian would be driving; he didn't think the man would show up in just any car.

He had been correct, a sliver Skyline with a blue decal on the side pulled up ten minutes to 8:00 and he knew Brian would step out of that car. It looked sleek and smooth, just like the man himself. Vince watched as Brian gracefully stepped out of the car. The man was wearing dark jeans with a blue button up opened with a white undershirt underneath. Vince was a little disappointed that the button up hid most of the tight white shirt, that hugged the man's body, but that's where the disappointment ended. The blue in Brian's shirt matched the color of the man's eyes Vince had seen earlier that day, and it was good color on his sun kissed skin.

Brian walked in and immediately spotted him with no trouble. "Hi," he said as a greeting as he sat down.

"Hey," Vince said back. "Nice looking car."

Brian grinned largely, "Thanks, she's my pride and joy and shit."

"What's her win number?"

Brian shrugged, "never bothered to count, she's never seen a pair of tail lights though."

Vince nodded, "haven't seen you at any of the races here, and trust me I would have remembered if I had."

"Just moved here, haven't had the chance. Like to get to know the people I work for first before I go around doing illegal shit and pissing them off."

"Where you from?"

A town called Barstow, four hours that way," he said pointing to the left, "you?"

"Here, born and raised. So what made you move from Barstow?" He asked in a hurry to learn everything he could about the other man.

"It's a shit place and I got a job offer in Miami."

"Miami, how long were you there?"

"Three years had to leave after I took out a known drug lord, there's a large sum of money being offered if someone can off me." He said looking non concerned.

"I think you're going to be trouble Brian." Vince told him in mock seriousness.

"You like trouble?" He smirked.

"Hell yes." Vince said with a smile.

The waitress walked over and took their drinks and food orders.

"So what about family?" Vince asked after she left.

"What about it?" He looked nothing but confused at the question.

"Where is yours?"

"Dunno," he shrugged.

"You don't know?" Vince asked in confusion this time.

"Left when I was young, it's cool, shit don't faze me anymore." It was a partial lie, Brian was relaxed showing that he was for the most part okay with it, but there was a tenseness in his eyes that held a slightly different emotion. "What about you and family?" A subject change if Vince had ever heard one, which he had Vince was king of the subject change tactic.

He told him all about his make shift family, about Dom, Letty, Mia, Jesse, and Leon. He talked all about the garage and how they worked together, even told him that they all chose to live together. He wanted to see how Brian reacted to that piece of information. A lot people looked at living in a house with your family as some kind of failing, but it wasn't for them. It wasn't failing it was succeeding, being able to keep the family together.

"Sounds kind of perfect man." Brian said with a smile, and Vince gave him one in return.

"Yeah it is."

"If I wasn't a cop I always figured I'd be in a garage, worked in one in Miami. It was for the sake of my cover and shit, also free bay time for my car, but I liked it. Almost turned my badge over at the end of the job and started up a garage with an old friend of mine there."

"Why didn't you?" Vince asked curiously.

"Loaded question," Brian said with a small but guarded smile. "The friend I was talking about, we had some issues I guess you could say. I was fresh out of the academy when he got busted for stolen parts. I didn't know about the raid, and honestly there was nothing I could do once he got popped. Didn't stop him from blaming me though." He said with a hint of a bitter smile.

"But you all good now?"

"Yeah, I guess." He said like he was unsure and Vince raised an eyebrow at him. "Nah we are, definitely are, forget I said anything." He said with a grin that looked out of place. "Why I didn't turn in my badge though, well you know that high you can usually only get when you press the NOS." Vince nodded he knew all too well. "Sometimes I can get that same feeling when I'm dodging bullets and taking down a perp. I need that shit man, almost as much as I need to breath."

Vince took a slow breath when he saw the look on Brian's face, the same look he saw on his own in the mirror when he was about to do something stupid just to prove he could."

Vince slipped his leg over to the other side of the table, and dragged it gently up and down Brian's. "An adrenaline junkie huh?"

"Yeah, always looking for that next fix." His eyes flashed when Vince let out a small growl.

The conversation went one for a long time, it was close to closing and they were still talking.

"So your family, they feel the same about cops as you do?"

"Don't think I can claim to hate all cops now, can I?" Vince said with a smirk, that faded when he spoke next. "To answer your question though yeah, we've had some run ins, and it's left a bitter taste in their mouths." He said it like he didn't really want to tell him that information, Brian wasn't sure if it was admitting he was once in trouble with the law, or if it was because he was telling Brian and himself that his family wouldn't really like him.

"Maybe not," he said in reply to Vince's first question. "Doesn't mean you like others ones though and I get what you're saying so no worries. I don't actually have very many friends at work myself."

"How many do you have?"

"None," Brian laughed. "I don't think I ever fit in, as far as what a cop is and all that fraternal brotherhood shit. The fact that I race is more than enough proof of that, I'm the black sheep so to speak. I get the job done though, and that's all my superiors really care about."

"Yet you're being punished." Vince said teasingly.

"There's that," Brian pointed at him. "It's all for show though, they knew I did what was needed, they don't expect anything different from me. When the head honcho rains down hell because of structural damage to the city, they have to look like they did something."

"Wait a minute, high speed car chase downtown, structural damage." Vince said like he was putting pieces of a puzzle together. "You're the cop that caused someone to crash into that post office aren't you, that chase was plastered all over the news."

"Guilty," Brian smirked. "He was getting away, and that shit don't fly with me."

"They never said what the guy did." Vince said fishing; he wanted to know what someone had to do that was bad enough for Brian to cause him to crash like that.

"Murdered a family: a mom, dad, two kids. It was one of those deals gone south kind of thing for a big gang that's taken residence here in the last couple of months. What bothered me the most is that he hit the wrong family, the dad that was accused of turning never had any ties to the gang in the first place didn't deserve it. The fact that it was children, well I will spare you the details, I'm trying to forget myself." His eyes were hard and fierce, and Vince could only imagine how difficult looking at two kids lying on the ground must have been.

When the waitress came over and pushed the check further into the middle of the table both men knew that had over stayed their welcome. Vince pulled out cash and left the amount on the bill and a rather large tip on the table.

"Want to go for a drive?" Brian asked with a smile that Vince knew meant things were going to get exciting.

"You driving?" He asked with a grin of his own.

"Yes."

They ended up lying on the hood of the Skyline at some beach on the outskirts. "Wow," Vince said after a minute of silence.

Brian let out a laugh, "I take you approve of my driving?"

"Hell yes, I mean I knew you could drive, saw it on the news, but damn, they way you drive, shit." Vince said too turned on to actually use real words.

Brian smirked, "they called me Bullitt in Miami."

Vince snorted, "McQueen huh? It suits you."

Vince turned on his side and reached out to the spot where Brian's shirts had ridden up. He ran his fingers down his stomach to his hip bone.

Brian reached over and grabbed the man's neck, which was the only opening Vince needed. He leaned in and started to kiss the other man's mouth with all the raw lust that had been building up since Brian started his car.

He slid down off the hood, and moved to where he was in front of Brian. He pulled at his legs and positioned him just right underneath him. He looked into Brian's eyes for any hesitation and when he didn't see any he leaned in and started to kiss Brian more.

"Your home late," Dom said from his place at the kitchen table.

"You waiting up for me now or what?" Vince's looked over at the clock it was 3:00 AM.

Dom shrugged, "have to admit I was curious."

"About me going on a date," Vince said grabbing a Corona out the fridge. "Isn't that big of a deal."

"Guess not," Dom said while surveying Vince's body language. The man looked like he had just found the most addicting drug in the world, "you dressing up nice for one and coming back all marked up on your neck is kind of one though."

"Hmm," Vince said nonchalantly.

"Alright," Dom told him and got up from the table. Knowing the man wasn't going to give him any details, which was odd really. He usually couldn't get Vince to stop giving him details, he always over shared.

The next morning everyone was working in the shop, and Vince snuck back to Jesse's domain.

"Hey Jess," he said to get the man's attention off his computer.

"Hey man, you still having problems with that fuel mag?" He asked while taking a drag off of his cigarette.

Vince shut the door and shook his head. "Nah I need a favor though, no questions asked."

The team had always had the no questions asked rule in place. If someone came to you and said that phrase and you decided to help, you didn't ask anything and you didn't repeat anything either. They then owed you one in return.

"Yeah sure man, what's up?"

"I need you to look up a racer for me, he spent the majority of his time in Miami, street name was Bullitt."

"Alright," Jesse said slowly. Vince's no questions asked were usually a bit more dangerous, or illegal. "What you want to know?"

"Mainly his win record, and just what the word about him was."

"Give me a second."

Vince set down in a chair and swung his feet up on a desk and listened to the sound of Jesse typing. When the buttons stopped making sounds Vince knew Jesse was reading so he could give Vince a summary. One of things he liked most about the kid, he knew Vince didn't like to waste time with the long version of things.

"Right, well you know most of this information is just people talking, so some of it might not be true, just to warn you." Vince nodded. "It's says Bullitt disappeared from the scene about a month ago, says he just packed up and left one day. No one knows where he disappeared to, there is talk about him getting caught up in a drug lord's web or something, but not really much of that. I can't really find a number for his wins; I don't think Miami really takes stock into counting like we do. Apparently he's never lost though; he was king of the streets there."

Vince smiled, "thanks Jess." Brian was just full of surprises.

"Yeah no problem man." It was clear Jesse wanted to question why Vince wanted info on the man, but that was the blessing of the rule, he couldn't.

Vince and Brian fell into an easy pattern of seeing each other at least once a day, for the last month. Sure the times they saw each other varied, sometimes Brian had time during the day, most times he was available late at night, but when he texted Vince to let him know he was off, Vince went over to Brian's place as soon as he could get away. He knew things were going fast but he wasn't going to step on the brakes any time soon. Things were good, hot, and heavy. Vince didn't think he had ever felt like this about anyone, even Mia, and that was saying something.

Unfortunately their pattern had to be put on hold when Brian had a job that caused him to spend all his time at work. Vince was a little concerned about how tired the man sounded on the phone when he could call, and when he voiced it Brian had told him the job was important, so quick naps at his desk had been all he was getting. It had been three days and when his phone lit up on Friday he was hoping it was Brian letting him know he was on the way home.

Brian: Hey you busy?

Vince: Nah watching a movie. You still working?

Brian: Just left the station actually.

Vince: Want some company?

Brian: Don't want to interrupt your movie.

Vince: Shitty movie, I'll see you in ten.

Brian: Alright, bring some beer. I need one.

Vince quietly stood up from his spot on the floor and went down to his room; he picked up a small bag and threw a change of clothes inside. He didn't notice Dom watching him till he spoke.

"You sneaking out again?"

Vince gave a little jump. "Huh?"

"You've been sneaking around at odd hours for weeks now. Sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes during the day. Whatever chick your seeing must be something if she's got you running around like this." Vince was silent, which made Dom frown. "All I'm saying is you could bring her by to meet the family don't see why you haven't yet."

This wasn't the first time Dom had brought it up, and Vince knew he was making Dom mad with his tight lips, so he decided maybe it was time to drop the first bomb, give him something at least. "It's not a she."

"Oh," Dom said surprised then shrugged. "Alright wasn't expecting it, but that's cool."

"Yeah?" Vince asked shocked himself.

"Yeah, ain't nobody here going to bust your balls about it. You like who you like, not sure why you never told us, but whatever you have your reasons. So when you going to bring him by now that I know?"

"It's complicated Dom."

"It ain't that complicated you like him enough to still be seeing him, so bring him by."

"Maybe soon I will."

Dom frowned, "when you're ready then."

"Hey," Vince called out while walking into the house, he was still a bit on edge after his and Dom's talk but the minute he saw Brian that all went away.

"Hey yourself," Brian said from the hallway, he had a towel wrapped around his waist and just gotten done taking a shower. At seeing Brian's state of undress Vince was already starting to get hard, but it went quickly away when he saw the exhaustion that racked Brian's body.

"Go get dressed; I bought you some food, since I know you ain't been eating."

Brian let out a laugh and went into his room. It didn't take long for Vince to figure out that when Brian was on a job eating and sleeping took a backseat. He also knew Brian didn't cook, and his fridge was almost always empty since he didn't have time for grocery shopping for the most part.

Vince went into the kitchen and heated up the container of food Mia had given him with a smile when he asked for some leftovers.

He dished it out onto a plate, set it on the bar with an opened beer, and waited for Brian to come out.

It didn't take long for a sleepy Brian in sweats with his hair still dripping to join him. He sat down and started digging in while Vince scoffed at his hair and went to retrieve a towel from the bathroom.

He placed the towel on Brian's head and made quick work of drying it.

"Oh my god this good," he said in between mouthfuls.

"Mia cooks like a goddess." Vince said knowingly.

"Yeah she does, you eat like this every night, I'm seriously jealous. I mean honestly what the fuck you doing with me when there is a woman who cooks like this out there?"

Vince let out a laugh, "she's like a sister, and even with your dismal kitchen skills I prefer you in bed."

Brian smiled, "that's good."

"So your case, it end alright?" He asked while throwing the towel onto the edge of the counter and sitting down on the other stool.

"Ehh," Brian said. "A cop lost her house tonight."

"How did that happen?"

"She was being stalked, and shit. They guy was bat shit crazy, and unfortunately one of our own. It's why I couldn't come home, I was watching out for her until we caught the guy. He made his appearance tonight, tried to blow everyone in the house up by shooting at a gas fireplace. Got her out of there, hit the glass with my gun, but still had to dive through it to get to the pool. I'm a little sore if I'm being honest." Brian finished his food and put the plate in the sink. "It's a long complicated story, dead lover, ass ex-husband, crazy cop, who was still a cop and he ended up dead. I would tell you the long version but I'm..."

"Exhausted, I'm sure not sleeping and almost being blown up can do that to a guy, come on let's go to bed."

Vince followed Brian down the hall and into his room. Brian wasted no time in crawling into bed, with Vince following. He put his head down on Vince's chest and the man wrapped his arm around the other.

"Oh," he said. "Forgot to ask you know a guy named Hector, he has a garage in town?"

Vince tensed a bit, "Hector is a friend, he in trouble?"

"Nah," he laughed, and Vince felt the rumble on his chest. "Met him at Harry's when I was picking up some parts for the Skyline. Thanks for telling me about that place, you were right best prices. Anyways he told me where a race was being set for tomorrow night. Wanted to make sure he was trustworthy before I went. No one knows I'm a cop, but you can't ever be too careful. I was in a lets beat the narc circle once, not a place I want to be ever again."

Vince tightened his hold on Brian when he heard that. "Hector can be trusted, you thinking about throwing in finally?"

"Yeah, will you be out there?" Brian murmured.

"Yeah me and the team, Dom heard there is some out of towners with deep pockets showing up."

"Good," Brian said, and at first Vince thought the man was talking about him being there. "Need some cash."

"Yeah," Vince agreed feeling slightly disappointed.

"How do you want to do this?" Brian asked the man, while wiggling to get more comfortable.

"What you mean?" He asked back confused.

"Well you obviously don't want to tell your family about me."

"Brian I…" Vince stammered.

"Nah it's alright don't sweat it, they hate cops, and I'm not going to lie to them about what I do, just not who I am. So do you want to say we're friends or just act like we don't know each other, that's actually probably best, being friends with a cop is probably just as not okay as dating one right?"

"Brian I'm sorry I..." he started to stammer again.

Brian let out a laugh, "it's alright don't worry about it, I don't have any hurt feelings or shit man, I get it. You don't seem like the guy that does serious any ways and meeting the family is serious. We'll just meet after the race or something alright?"

"Alright," Vince said quietly and that was that, except it really wasn't. Because Vince did want serious, he just didn't know how to say it, or how to break the fact that Brian was a cop to the team. He did plan to do it, just not yet, he didn't know how. He couldn't help but feel like no matter what Brian said about it being okay, his voice kind of sounded like it really wasn't. He opened his mouth to voice some of this to Brian, but the man was already asleep.

The street was buzzing tonight with racers, Dom had heard right, there was a rather large group of kids with flashy cars and big wads of cash.

"Hey Hector what's the word?" Vince heard Dom ask the man, he was a little distracted from keeping an eye out for Brian. He hadn't seen the man or his car yet, and he was starting to wonder if he had gotten called in or something.

"I got a new guy coming in; set him up with two of the out of town guys to race."

"New guy, new to the scene or what?" Dom asked.

"He's from Miami, called a couple of contacts out there to get the word on him. He's legit and shit, king of Miami. Should be interesting to see what he can do, I was going to set him up against you, but I knew you wanted a large payout, and he mentioned he did as well."

Dom nodded, "yeah I rather race a few of these boys loaded down with daddy's money tonight, but your right I'm interested in seeing him race."

A silver Skyline pushed through the crowd by blowing steam out the back. "There he is now." Vince let out a small smile when he saw Brian get out of his car, looking perfectly fuckable, and Vince couldn't wait until tonight. "Hey snowman," Hector yelled out. That was an interesting name for Brian, Vince wondered how that got started. Brian walked over to Hector and ignored Vince like he didn't really know the man. He knew that had been the end decision last night but it still stung a bit.

"Hey man," Brian said with an easy smile.

"This here is Dom and Vince," Hector said pointing at both of them.

"Hey, name's Brian," he said while lifting his chin barley.

"Hey," Dom said back while Vince nodded. "You run Miami?"

Brian should have looked surprised that Dom knew that piece of information but he didn't he looked calm and cool. "For a bit, got here a month ago." he shrugged off. "So what's the word Hector who do you got for me?" Brian asked.

"Those two over there," Hector jerked his head at a guy standing by a Viper, and another by a tricked out Spyder. Brian grinned and it almost looked feral, Vince would have felt sorry for the two kids about to lose, if he didn't want to see Brian beat them so badly. "You ready?"

"Yeah man," he said in a confident tone. Brian and Hector walked over to the line, and Vince stood still watching as Brian talked to the two he was racing.

"What's the buy in?" One of the kids asked.

Hector answered, "three large."

Brian shoved his hands in his pockets and smirked. "What do you say we kick it a nickel?" *

"You want to jack it up to eight?" The kid asked in disbelief.

"You scared?" Brian taunted.

"Kids got stones," Dom commented to Vince. Vince nodded, he could lose them both right now, they could decide to race against someone else asking for less.

"It won't be me losing pretty boy." Vince felt a hot rage pass through his body, sure Brian was pretty, but he was a lot more than that. He deserved respect not some loud mouth kid acting like Brian was only good for his looks.

"Then what you worried about the cost for?" Brian asked with an obviously fake innocent look on his face, Vince knew it was fake, the man wasn't innocent. "Eight large," he said handing the bills over to Hector, "is what I'm saying, if you got a problem with it then why don't you just ask these nice people to back on up so you can go home."

Vince could see that was the moment Brian had them, he had given them enough of a punch in the pride to go through with.

Both men handed the money over to Hector and Brian was already grinning like the money was his. It practically was, Vince had seen the man drive, no way he was going to lose.

He walked over to his car, and Vince really wanted the man to just look at him at least, but Brian didn't, and it bothered Vince, he wanted to kiss Brian for good luck, but that would cause some problems as far as the team was concerned.

It was clear that Brian was the far superior driver right from the start; he pulled past the two and made it an easy breeze across the finish line. When he got out Vince saw him being surrounded by race groupies and he let out a growl, he thought it was quiet but Dom had obviously heard it.

"What you didn't want him to win?" Dom asked. "I kind of like him, like I said he's got balls."

Vince figured the best answer was no answer, and he just followed Dom closer into the crowd when the man moved.

"Congrats Miami," Dom told him when they got close to the man.

"Thanks," he grinned.

Hector handed over 24,000 dollars to Brian with a grin. "That was some racing snowman."

"What the fuck man, that shit was rigged." One of the losers walked up and got in Brian's face. "I want my money back bitch."

Vince tensed; screw keeping it a secret if this went bad Vince was going to be handing out a beating to the man. No one would touch what is his, and Brian was that, he was Vince's through and through. Brian looked for Hector to hand him the money to hold, but Hector wasn't around. "I got it for you man," he said.

Brian handed the money over to Vince, and Dom got that curious look he always got when he was trying to figure something out.

"I'm the bitch?" He asked. "Funny, I'm not the one who lost and is now crying about it."

The punch came quick, and Vince moved like he was going to interfere, but in the end it wasn't needed. Brian stopped the punch and landed one of his own. It was followed by a few more, and he only stopped when the guy was on the ground. Brian looked over to the other guy he beat, "want your money back too?" He snarled. When the guy shook his head Brian spoke in a lot calmer voice. "Then I suggest you take your friend out of here."

Vince could tell Dom was impressed, but he could also tell the man was suspicious of how Vince just acted. Brian walked over to him and held out his hand. "Thanks man."

"No problem." Vince said honestly and handed the cash over.

"Cops!" Leon screamed out.

Everyone scrambled then, and Vince took off for his car, he couldn't see Brian in the crowd and he hoped the man got out of there alright. He might be a cop but he could still get in trouble if he got caught.

It had been too long, too long and Vince hadn't heard from Brian or Dom. He was just walking out to his car to go hunt both of them down when a cab pulled up.

When Dom stepped out Vince said a quiet thank god. "Going somewhere Vince?" Dom asked.

"I was going to look for you." Dom nodded, and Vince watched as Brian got out with a pained look on his face. Vince let out a quiet sigh of relief at seeing the other man. "Brian picked me up, there were cops tailing us all over, but he got us out."

Vince nodded and then realized there was something very wrong. "Where's your car man?" Vince asked.

Dom tensed and Brian's face looked slightly heartbroken. "Tran," Dom said, "he shot it up, and it blew up."

"What?" Vince asked blood going cold; he didn't even want to think about Brian anywhere near that psycho.

"I'm headed out; I'll see you two around." Brian said and turned around to start walking off.

"Brian," Dom called out. "Come get a beer, it's the least I can do."

"Nah man, got work in the morning." Brian said adamantly.

"Then let Vince give you a ride."

"No," Brian said firmly. "I don't live that far away, and I rather walk."

Vince felt a little disheartened by that, he had the perfect excuse to spend some time with Brian but the man didn't want to.

"Alright," Dom said. "If you need anything come by the shop alright. I'm really sorry about your car man."

"Me too," Brian said and started walking; Vince knew he had lied to Dom, it wasn't close by, his house was clear across town.

It had been three fucking days since Vince had heard or seen from Brian. The man wasn't answering his phone, returning calls, or even texting him back. He couldn't help but feel like he had fucked the whole thing up, that he should have just introduced Brian to Dom as the guy he had been dating. Because of his apprehension Brian was probably done with him, and that feeling sucked.

They were all sitting at the table eating and Dom kept casting glances in Vince's direction. He knew he had been out of it the last couple of days, that it was obvious to everyone something was wrong, but he couldn't help but show it, he felt like shit.

It didn't help that the topic of conversation had turned to the man he couldn't stop thinking about.

"I mean we kind of owe the dude, lost his car and shit because of our turf war." Leon said.

"I offered in the cab ride," Dom told him, "he refused."

"I know, I know you said man, can't help but feel like it's wrong though, helps you stay out of handcuffs and gets his car shot up for his effort."

"Trust me Leon, I feel the same, but it's not like any of us know the guy, we don't know where to find him." Dom glanced over at Vince, and he knew the man suspected something.

Vince's phone rang and he dove his hand deep into his pocket and reached for it. When he saw Brian's name he cried out in relief, not caring that anyone heard. He stood suddenly and rushed out of the backdoor to answer.

"Brian," he called out.

"Hey man, sorry I haven't been picking up."

"You alright?" Vince asked.

"Yeah I'm okay." He said quietly.

"Are we okay Brian?" He asked nervously.

"Yeah V, were good. Shit I really am sorry, didn't mean to make you think otherwise." Brian sounded like he was tired.

"Why didn't you let me drive you home?" He asked desperately because he needed some other answer than Brian being pissed off at him.

"When I was trying to get Dom out of there the other night my plates got popped. I had a message from my boss telling me to report in. Didn't want to create waves for you." The rest of the tension leaked out Vince's shoulders.

"Did you get in much trouble?"

Brian growled, "no, just blackmailed."

"Blackmail what you talking about?" Worried that Brian might be in some serious trouble if someone had him on tight leash.

"They made me go undercover for this case. Look I don't have long, gotta get back to it. I'm going to be outta touch for a few days longer. When I'm not undercover I'm staking out my marks, so you might not hear from me."

"Just text me when you can alright?"

"Will do, and I really am sorry man. I swear I wasn't blowing you off, we're good I promise."

"I'll see you when you're done with work alright, call me when your off. Thank you by the way, for getting Dom out of there, and I'm sorry about the Skyline. "

"I will, and its okay V, wasn't going to let someone in your family get put in handcuffs. Got to go," he said really quick like, "later."

"Later," Vince said.

"So Brian IS the one you're dating."

Vince jumped, "Jesus Christ Dom, you gotta stop doing that."

"He did a really good job at acting like he didn't know you, wanna know the tell though?"

"What?" Vince asked.

"He handed over 24,000 dollars to you, no one hands over that much cash unless they trust the person. So you want to tell me why you didn't introduce me to him then, why he basically lied to my face?"

"That's not fair man, he did..." Dom cut hit him off.

"It for you, so you had him lie, I don't know what the fuck is going on here Vince, but I'm a little pissed off. When you're ready to hand out some truths about shit come find me." Vince watched as Dom stormed off and sighed.

Brian was on the job for five more days, he sent the occasional text to Vince to let him know he was alive and was still working. It wasn't until Sunday that he finally called and Vince got to hear his actual voice. He was standing next to Dom by the grill, and didn't bother to walk off this time; he knew Dom would probably just follow. He wanted answers, enough to follow and listen in to get them.

"Hey you doing okay?" Vince asked from the start, he had been worried about Brian the last couple of days. Sure a text message was better than nothing, but he always preferred to hear the man's voice. Text messages could lie, sound of Brian's voice couldn't .

"Yeah man, just wrapped everything up." Brian sounded weird, like he was almost in pain, but there was more to it than just that.

"You sound off," Vince said in concern.

"I'm just tired and my back is killing me from sleeping in a van but other than that I'm alright. It's Sunday right, you doing the barbecue thing?" A change in subject.

"Yeah we're just about to eat you going home?" He started to wonder how pissed off Dom would be if he skipped dinner and just went straight to Brian's.

"Naw I'm just going to stay here do some paperwork." Well there goes that plan.

"You should go home eat some real food." Vince told him seriously.

Brian laughed, "You've seen my fridge you know real food ain't in there."

"Yeah I do know maybe you should stock it every once in awhile."

"Been busy, you do it," Brian said teasingly.

Vince took it seriously however, "If it will get you to eat more regularly I'd be happy to." Vince watched Dom take the last burger off the grill. "Foods about to be on. Don't work too hard."

"Yeah have fun I'll see you whenever." Brian said, in that same sad tone he had when he first answered, and Vince knew him sounding off was more than just being tired.

"Whenever why not tonight? You planning on sleeping at the office?" Vince said quickly not wanting to wait any longer than that to see Brian, he had missed the other man.

"Maybe, depends really." He said ominously.

"I'll be over tonight." He told him firmly.

"Guess I'll go home to sleep than, see you," sounding more like his usual self.

"Don't forget to eat and real food, not shit out of a can." He said before Brian hung up, the only answer was a laugh.

"He could be eating real food if you weren't embarrassed of your family and would just introduce us properly." Dom said angrily.

"Dom I'm not..."

"Nah save it, it's all I can come up with since I know it's not about him being a dude everyone was cool when it came to light."

"I'm not embarrassed by any of you," he said truthfully.

"Then you're embarrassed of him? If so you need to just call it quits now."

"What?" Vince asked in anger.

"If you're embarrassed by who you are dating it will never work out." He told Vince with a glare.

"I'm not embarrassed by him." Vince yelled out.

"Sure looks that way to me, and it probably looks that way to him as well."

Well fuck, Dom was right, it did probably look that way to Brian, even if the man did say it was okay. "I'll be back."

Vince pulled up to the station where Brian worked; he had met the man there several times after Brian got off so he knew what door to walk into.

After a quick stop to the reception desk Vince was headed into the direction of Brian's department. He opened the doors and saw Brian bent over his desk with his back to him. His arm was in a sling, and Vince could tell he was having trouble writing with his left hand.

Vince walked quietly up to Brian and put his fingers in his hair. "I've missed you," he told the man.

Brian looked up at Vince in surprise, "what you doing here?

"Like I said I missed you haven't seen you in days. What's happened to your arm?"

"Dislocated shoulder." Brian said.

Vince hummed, "that the only injury you walked away with?"

"Yeah, few bruises but nothing major."

"Where?" He asked.

Brian stood up a lifted his shirt, and Vince hissed at seeing all the black and blue on his chest. He reached around and pulled up the back of Brian's shirt and his back was just as bad.

"What happened?" He asked angrily he wanted to go beat the fuck out of whoever did that.

Brian shook his head and looked around to let Vince know he couldn't talk about it there.

"Let's go." He told Brian.

"Where we going?" He asked curiously.

"There is a bunch food at my house and you're going to eat or I'm going to put you in my lap and feed you." Vince was dead serious too, he didn't like how many meals Brian ended up skipping when Vince wasn't around. The man tried to play it off and acted like he ate while on a long job, but Vince knew Brian was just the kind of cop that didn't do anything until he caught his guy.

"Vince I already told you I ain't lying to your family, I'm not going to pretend to be something I'm not. Besides I have paperwork."

"I ain't asking you too, I want you to be exactly the person you are and that includes being a cop. The paperwork can wait, you can't write with your other hand anyways."

"You sure?" He asked again, trying to give the man plenty of chances to back out.

"Yes I'm sure. You were right the other night I had always been the guy that didn't do serious, but I'm doing it now."

Vince pulled up to the house and watched as Brian started to take off the badge around his neck. "No leave it on," he told him. "I was being honest, I'm not embarrassed of you or what you do, you're a good cop Brian. That's something to proud of and I am proud to be with you."

"Thank you," Brian said quietly in a relieved tone. Vince didn't know how he had been such a clueless idiot this whole time. Of course it had hurt Brian for Vince to not introduce him to his family just because he was a cop. Brian was a good ass detective, and he was proud of it, and had every right to be, and Vince should have never acted like he wasn't proud of it too.

Brian got out of the car and walked over to Vince who grabbed the hand that wasn't in the sling. "I'm sorry, really I am, I don't want you to feel like I'm embarrassed of you, it's not something I'll ever make the mistake of making you feel again."

Brian leaned over and gave him a kiss, and Vince knew he had been forgiven.

He pulled Brian into the backyard and left their fingers intertwined. "Everybody this is Brian," he called out.

Dom was the first to walk towards them; he smiled at Brian until he saw the badge around his neck. Leon walked up to them as well. "You're dating a cop?" He asked shocked.

"Technically I'm a detective, homicide to be exact." Brian told them looking nervous.

"So that's why you didn't bring him around?" Dom asked Vince.

"Yeah, but I was wrong. Brian's a really good detective, he saves people's lives and when he can't save them he finds the person that did it." Vince said proudly and felt Brian squeeze his hand.

Dom nodded, "so the other night when Tran shot at you?"

"He shot at an officer which is illegal as fuck yeah, but I wasn't exactly on duty, or doing anything by the book, so he got off lucky. I like racing and don't want to blow it by people finding out about my job anyways."

"Let's get you some food," Vince said while pulling Brian to the table.

"Made sure Leon saved you some." Dom told him, and Vince knew he had been worried over nothing. Dom accepted it, and that meant everyone else would too.

"Good looking out brother." He said with grin.

Letty walked out the front door and watched as Vince pulled Brian on to his lap.

"I thought I was only getting the lap if I didn't eat," he told Vince with a grin.

"Missed you," he whispered. "And your all beat to hell."

"I'm usually beat to hell Vince," he told him.

"Don't like it," he grumbled.

"So umm are we all just going to act like there's not a cop on Vince's lap?"

"Letty," Dom said, "this is Brian, he's the guy that saved my ass the other night, also the guy V here has been dating."

Letty let out a laugh, "so you're dating a cop?"

"Detective," Vince said. "But yeah I am problem?"

"Nah bubba, just kind of funny is all. Dom always did call you a cop magnet."

Vince and Brian both laughed and Brian turned his head to him, "do I want to know?"

"Our Vince here gets pulled over a lot." Leon told him.

Brian snorted at the irony, "maybe if he wasn't going thirty over he wouldn't."

"Hush," Vince told him fondly and pulled a plate of food in front of him. "Eat or I'll feed you." Brian made a show of picking up a fork and taking the first bit. "Good boy," Vince said smugly.

"Watch it Vincent," Brian growled.

"So how did you two meet?" Mia asked with a smile as she sat down.

"I pulled him over." He said simply.

Dom laughed this time, "so the night it took you an hour to get some beer?"

"Yeah," Vince said and poked Brian in the side to get him to take another bite. "He pulled me over because he was bored, and wanted to check out my car."

"Oh my god," Leon said with a laugh. "Are you serious, you were that bored?"

"Man you have no idea how boring patrolling can be. It's not a typical day at work if I'm not chasing some shit through L.A., but patrolling you just sit on your ass and basically do nothing all day. Could drive a man to off himself with his own gun if he's not careful."

"I do have a question about the other night, why didn't you let Vince give you a ride?"

"My phone went off in the cab remember?" Dom nodded. "It was my boss; my plates got tagged while I was getting you out of there."

"Shit man, you get in trouble?"

Brian grimaced, "I got the "I'm so disappointed in your choices Brian', and shit. The "I have to report this you know that', and then some higher ups come talk to me about how to make all that trouble go away. It's why I've been gone for like eight days now. The forced me to go undercover, the basically owned my ass."

"Speaking of that, you want to tell me about the bruises now?" Vince gave him a look that read your going to tell me.

"You know that gang I was telling you about?" Brian asked him.

"Yeah the one that just moved in, killed the wrong family?"

"That one," Brian nodded and looked over at Vince pointedly.

Vince's eyes lit up in understanding. "You went undercover in a gang?" He asked loudly in shock.

"Yeah, and I got jumped in, honestly I look a lot better now than I did the first day, damn assholes."

Vince tightened his grip on Brian, he knew Brian could take care of himself, but it didn't stop him from worrying.

"You got jumped into a gang, for your job. Do all cops go through that shit?" Leon asked.

"Nah," Brian said. "A lot of under-covers do, it's take it or blow your cover and die, little pain is better than death. It's why the best UCs are the ones without families, nothing to lose you know." Brian had been talking for a while and hadn't taken a bite, so Vince grabbed his hand and guided the fork to his plate and then his mouth. "Yes mom I get it." He took another bite to make Vince happy.

"So why did you have to go in?" Dom asked.

"They were burning people to death, for the pure sick fun of it." Brian said grimly, "it's all I'm going to say, shit I saw is best not to be talked about. The important thing is I got the main leaders in lock up, with enough evidence to keep their asses there."

Everyone looked horrified, but no one more so than Vince, he couldn't believe Brian was undercover with those psychos, they could have lit him up if he had gotten caught.

"Hey you're that guy from the race!" Another voice yelled out, diffusing the tension when they came out of the house.

"Brian that's Jesse, Jess this Brian." Vince said.

"Man it was awesome to see race, your Skyline was a thing of beauty." Brian winced at the mention of his Skyline. Jesse winced himself at seeing the look on Brian's face. "Oh I'm sorry man, must have hurt."

Brian shrugged, but the pained look was still there, "I got something in the works for my next car, which reminds me. What are you doing tomorrow afternoon?" He asked Vince with a smile now.

"Nothing what have you got in mind?" The man said with a shrug.

"I thought I show you what the second best and last thing about being a cop is."

"Alright," Vince said wondering what he might have just agreed to.

"Everyone else is welcome to come too, I think you'll like it."

Everyone else but Dom already had plans, and Dom agreed wanting to get to know the man Vince was seeing better. "What time we going?"

"Eight in the morning," Brian answered and laughed at the faces both men were making. "It's worth it, I promise."

"So what's the first best thing about being a cop?" Leon asked.

"The bullets of course," Brian said with a grin.

"Fucking crazy man, no wonder he's with Vince." Letty laughed out.

Brian finished his food and slumped back on Vince to get more comfortable. "I'm tired," he whispered in his ear.

Vince nodded and pushed Brian up, "we're going to sleep." He told everyone while standing up himself.

"Umm dude its still daylight." Jesse pointed out.

"Yes well Brian here doesn't sleep or eat on the job," he said with a glare in Brian's direction, it held no heat the though only fond exasperation.

"I do too," Brian said indignantly. "It's not my fault you don't count what I do as such.

"Cheese out of a can doesn't count Brian, and neither does 15 minute naps here and there."

"Don't knock canned cheese Vince, it's the best type of stake out food, easy and quick, gets the calories in, that's what counts."

"Uhhuh," he said but everyone could tell it was sarcastic.

Vince dragged Brian into the house and into his room; he shut the door and looked over at the man. "Like seeing you in my room, should have done this a lot sooner."

"I'm just glad you did man, I umm, well I felt like things were getting serious as far as I was concerned. Was worried there were more feelings on my part." He said like admitting that was hard.

"Definitely not," Vince told him and wrapped Brian up in a reassuring hug. "I'm past serious Brian, you got me hooked."

Brian nodded and took a few steps back to slip out of his shirt and pants, "I feel the same."

Brian climbed into Vince's bed and covered up. "If you're not tired, you can always go back out. Come to bed later."

"No, I told you missed you; just want to hold you okay?"

"Okay," Brian grinned as Vince laid down and he took his usually sleeping spot on the man's chest.

They went through a gate of a LAPD impound lot, and took a look around.

"Where are we Brian?"

"You my friends are at an event seldom a racer is privy to. A police car auction. All the vehicles that have been impounded and just sitting here for months are sold at very low prices."

"No shit?" Dom asked with an excited grin.

Brian nodded, "yep."

They got out of Dom's car and followed Brian. There were rows of cars all lined up for everyone to browse before the auction started.

He led them down to the fourth row to a beat up Supra, thing looked like it had been dragged through hell. "So this is what I'm planning for my next car."

"This?" Dom asked in disbelief.

"Yeah trust me, I know she doesn't look like much but I have a feeling about what's under that hood. I've seen her drive, had my eye on it since I got it put in here."

"Why is it in here?" Vince asked.

"Ran into a post office," Brian smirked.

"Wait, this is the car from that chase?"

"What chase?" Dom asked feeling like he was missing some crucial information.

"That one from the news a month back." Vince told him.

"That was you?"

"Yeah, and this is the one, and trust me when I say that this car could have beaten even me if the guy behind the wheel had been half decent at driving. Of course it's not saying much when I was in a slow as fuck car, because they won't let me touch anything under the hood on "company" cars." He said the last sentence in petulant like tone.

They left the Supra and continued to walk through that row; a very unpleasant looking man saw them and made a beeline for Brian.

"O' Conner, can't say I'm surprised to see you here." He said in a snarky ass way.

"Stasiak," Brian greeted in an I don't want to talk to your ass tone.

His eyes widened when he noticed Brian wasn't alone. "So you do have friends, I've often wondered with that mouth of yours." Vince growled but Brian held up his hand low enough for only Vince to see.

"Yes well some of us climb ranks because of skill, not all us move up by being overly friendly." Brian put the emphasis on overly.

The man gave Brian a hard look, "what are you implying O' Conner?"

"Why nothing Stasiak, nothing at all." He said with the overly innocent look, that Vince never fell for. "How's the nose by the way? Almost healed I see." Brian eyes roamed over the light bruises still under the man's eyes.

"You're pushing it O'Conner, I could still have your ass for that shit." The other cop hissed while pushing himself up into Brian's space.

"I really like to see you try man, really would." Brian said with a smile, one that said go ahead and push me.

The man took a look at all three of them, and obviously decided against saying whatever it was he was going to spit out next. He walked off without another word and Brian smirked.

They kept walking through that row. "He seems pleasant," Dom said sarcastically. "What happened to his nose?"

"I broke it," Brian said with a grin.

"What?" Vince asked, "you punched a guy that you work with?"

"Wouldn't be the first time, a lot of these guys have the tendency to piss me off. Plus you try being stuck in a van with the fucker for five days; you would have done the same. Trust me the bastard fucking deserved it."

"Language O' Conner," a man yelled out while walking toward them.

"Sure thing dad," Brian said rolling his eyes when the man got close enough.

The cop took notice of Dom and Vince standing behind Brian. "I have to say Brian; I'm surprised to see you here with actual people."

"Uh yeah Tanner I do know how to socialize." Brian said a little put out that his lack of friends was brought up twice already.

"Never seen you do it," Tanner pointed out.

"Know how and want to are two very different things." Brian snarked.

The man ignored what Brian said and introduced himself, "Sergeant Tanner."

"Vince." The man said and put his hand on Brian's shoulder.

"Dom." He said in a neutral voice. It didn't seem like Brian had the same hostility against this one that he had for the other guy.

Brian rolled his eyes at the man when his eyes zeroed in on Vince's hand. "Yes well this lovely game of meet the boss has been fun, thanks for making it awakard there in the beginning Tanner. We will be over there," he said pointing at another row, "you know just in case you want to come embarrass me some more."

"Good to know, I'll keep that in mind," he said with a smirk of his own and walked off.

"That how you talk to your boss?" Dom asked amused.

"Only Tanner, he's got a soft spot for me. I think it's my cheerful personality and sunny disposition." Brian said with a mock serious look.

"More like your sarcastic wit and tendency to punch people when they piss you off." Vince told him and squeezed Brian's shoulder.

Brian tilted his head to the side like he was reconsidering something. "Alright he probably keeps me around for entertainment and my work ethic of course."

"Of course," Vince said seriously, and then smiled broadly. "It's definitely not your ability to hand out speeding tickets."

Brian let out a loud laugh, "definitely not that."

The auction was a success, Brian had gotten the Supra and Dom had even bought a car as well.

When they were writing down addresses on the purchase forms Dom had taken the pen out Brian's hand and wrote down the garage. "I ain't letting anyone that is dating a member of my team go and rent a bay from a competitor," he told Brian when the man said it wasn't necessary. "It's also the least we can do, help you fix it up, since your left without a car because of me."

Brian had started to disagree but he saw Vince shake his head, and didn't say another word. He just told Dom thank you and started to walk with the two men towards Dom's car.

"Speaking of not having a car, how are you getting to work?" Vince asked Brian curiously.

"Well I've been sleeping in a stake out van, so haven't had to worry much about transportation. Now though I'll just be walking, it's not that bad." He said with a shrug.

"What time do you work tomorrow?" Vince asked.

"I don't, I had two days off to recover. I go in the day after."

"I'll give you a ride." Vince told him.

"It's really not..."

Vince cut him off. "I want to give you a ride, alright?"

"Alright," Brian said and Dom smiled at both men.

"Well since you were nice enough to bring us here today, I think tomorrow we will take you to the shop with us." Dom said while opening the door to his car.

"Sounds good man," Brian grinned.

"We need to stop by Brian's Dom, so he can get a few things."

"So I'm staying the night?" Brian asked, he wasn't upset by Vince's declaration just wanted to clarify.

"Yes," Dom and Vince said at the same time.

The garage got the reaction from Brian that Vince had been expecting, the man was all smiles like a kid in a toy store.

"You were right," Dom told Vince with a laugh at seeing Brian's face. "Lovesick gear head for sure."

Before Brian could comment Jesse came out of the back room and smiled at seeing the blonde man. "Hey Brian, hope you don't mind but Dom told me about the Supra, and when I got in this morning I drafted out a few designs for it. Didn't know much about the inside so the inner working plans aren't set yet, but I have about five different ones." Jesse spat out talking fast like he usually did when he was excited.

Both men looked over at Brian to see how he took to Jesse's personality they were all use to it by now, but new people were sometimes thrown off by how excitable he got. "Nah don't mind man you probably saved me lots of time, let's see what you got," Brian said easily in a relaxed tone.

Jesse beamed at him and motioned for him to follow, Dom and Vince walked behind Brian as he went.

They sat looking over the plans Jesse had put together and they were impressive as hell, and the look on Brian's face said he felt the same. "Damn Jesse, this is amazing, you're a genius." Brian breathed out the compliment easily, and Dom smiled, Jesse was, and Dom could appreciate when someone took the time to notice. "I really appreciate this man, you didn't have to."

"I like doing it," Jesse said with a shrug, "besides I want to help make up for you losing your car, and you and V are together so."

Brian smiled a large grin, he had never expected that kind of easy acceptance, never had it before and it felt good. "I only have one question."

"Shoot," Jesse told him.

"Are you stuck on the orange?" Brian asked him and when he saw the slight disappointment on Jesse's face he started spitting out words quickly. "If you are its cool man, orange just brings up some memories for me."

"Bad memories?" He asked Brian.

"A car that died a worse death than the Skyline man." Brian said grimly.

"Oh," Jesse said and his face morphed into a reassuring smile. "Nah not stuck on it at all, what color were you thinking?"

Dom and Vince both let out a breath they didn't realize they were holding in. You had to be careful when questioning Jesse's designs, sometimes his feelings could be hurt, but Brian handled it excellently.

"Black," Brian told him with a shrug, "haven't done it before."

Jesse nodded, "what about a decal man want one?"

"Sure, you got something in mind?"

"Yeah," Jesse told him, "a bullet."

Both Brian and Vince let out a laugh, "I take it Vince told you my street name huh?"

"Not in so many words," Jesse said while looking at Vince for permission to tell the story. Vince nodded and Jesse continued. "He had me look you up; Dom said you ran Miami, so it was easy to piece it together."

"You looked me up?" Brian asked Vince with a smirk.

He shrugged unapologetic, "wanted to know your win record."

"No one really counts in Miami; you just keep racing till no one wants to race you anymore." Brian said with a smirk.

"That's what I thought," Jesse told him.

Brian looked back at computer and sighed, "This is going to set me back a bit, ain't it?" Jesse let out a laugh and gave a nod.

"We can help out Brian." Dom said. "Least we can do."

"Nah man I have savings, just got to make a call."

Brian got his phone out of his pocket and looked at the time. It was about 10:00 in the morning in Miami, so Rome should be at the shop already. He dialed the number and put his phone to his ear.

"Brian!" A loud voice shouted into the phone and Brian pulled it slightly away from his ear knowing the man's volume didn't ever reduce.

"Hey man, how's business?" He said with a smile.

"It's good brah, how are you? Haven't heard from you in days man."

Brian winced, "undercover," was all he gave as an explanation.

"Man I thought after the last assassination attempt in Miami you were done with that shit." Rome told him a bit put off.

"I am man," Brian told him sounding honest. "Got into some trouble is all, had to go under to get out."

"Race?" Rome questioned.

"Nailed it in one," Brian grinned, maybe some space is what the two needed.

"Do I need to come out there and help your ass out?" It sounded like Rome was being insulting but Brian knew it was just the way the man offered help.

"Nah cuz, got it worked out. I could use for you transfer over some of my pocket fund though."

Vince mouthed the word pocket fund to Brian as a question. The man put up a finger signaling for Vince to hold on.

"Sure thing brah, what you need it for? Thought you were saving that shit for a rainy day, or retirement or something."

"It rained on the Skyline." Brian said.

"No shit? You alright with that homie, I know you loved that car more than you own dick and shit." Rome said with a laugh.

Brian laughed as well, "I don't know if you can love a car more than you love your own dick Rome."

"Yeah probably not. Anyways I'll set it up, should be there in a couple of days."

"Sounds good man," Brian said in his way of a thank you.

"I'm thinking about heading out there soon; make sure your staying out of trouble." Rome told him like he was testing the waters to make sure that was okay.

"Yeah?" Brian asked. "That sounds good to me cuz, wouldn't be surprised if you ended up staying." Brian knew Rome would understand the invitation. When he left Miami they were still trying to find a balance between the friendship they once had, the not speaking for years, and the new friendship they had made.

"You wish," Rome snorted. "Miami is still hotter than shit."

Brian knew Rome wasn't talking about the weather. "Yeah you just stay out of trouble with Suki's girls alright, don't put it past them to come after your dick or your car." All three men around him winced, and Brian could imagine Rome doing the same.

"Tej and Suki miss you man," Rome told him instead of commenting which led Brian to believe the man had already learned a lesson about that.

"Miss them too, I was going to call Tej today, but since I have you on the phone pass along a message for me."

"I ain't no carrier pigeon Brian." Rome complained.

"Uh huh, let him know that the guy he's needs to look for is name Randy Trent, he knows of my name, and he will get those hot parts out of there, and take them far enough away they can't be traced. Only guy I could find that looked to know what he was doing."

"Alright man," Rome said slipping into business mode, they never joked about the illegal shit. "Should Tej mention your name?"

"Have him mention the name Brian Anderson, tell him drop a few lines about Anderson wouldn't be happy if things went bad, you know play it up and shit."

Everyone eyebrows were raised up high into their forehead, hot parts were surprising that was even more so.

"What you do to make him so scared of you?"

Brian winced, "joined a gang, look Rome man I got to go." Brian said trying to get off the phone quickly.

"What?" Rome yelled out. "Nah this don't work like that cuz, you do something shit ton stupid and I get to yell at you!"

"I have to work," Brian lied. "Yell at me later, you know you like to sit on your lectures for a bit anyways. So you can really give it to me."

"Call me tonight Brian." The man said a bit angrily.

"Fine," Brian said not looking forward to it. "Talk to you then."

"Later cuz." Rome said and Brian knew he wasn't too angry about everything if he said bye before hanging up.

"Explain," Vince said to Brian.

"That was my friend the one I told you about."

"The one you almost started a garage with?" Vince said more like a statement then a question.

"Yeah, when I got tagged for the drug lord case they wanted me to drive with a baby DEA agent who knew nothing about cars. So I argued and got them to cut Rome a deal. He was on house arrest after three years in lock up. The case cleaned his record, and he decided to stay in Miami."

"Assassination attempt?" Dom asked.

"Heard that huh? After the drug lord Verone got put away he ordered a hit out on me. The orange car, it was a ford and they cut my brakes, screwed with a whole lot of other shit. Went barreling down a road at a very high speed, had to jump, thing blew up mere moments after I got out. So I fixed up the Skyline, packed up, and left on out of there, I knew more were coming after the first. Didn't want Rome, Tej, and Suki caught up in that shit. Got transferred to L.A., truth is I could have stayed, took out the guy's business, but Rome and me have a difficult past. He got popped for stolen cars in his garage in Barstow, when I just had gotten out of the academy. He thought I betrayed him and shit by becoming a cop, and worse he thought I knew his garage was going to be raided. He stopped talking to me, until I got him that deal. We're cool now, and the space has helped but..."

"You were still angry that he thought you ever do that to him." Jesse filled in.

"Yeah man," Brian said with a smile. "I was, not no more though."

"And the pocket fund?" Vince asked.

Brian laughed, "the job we had to do was driving some cash to drop off point for Verone, there was six bags total and no one really knew how much was in them. So we both skimmed some off the top."

Vince let out a laugh and grabbed Brian's hips to pull him in, "knew you were trouble."

"So you stole seized drug money, I guess helping a friend unload hot parts isn't that much of a stretch." Dom said with a smile.

"I always have ran names for Tej, help him find the best option for the job. It's easy to cheat the system when you know its ends and outs." Brian said with a smirk.

"First you're dating a cop who races, and now we find out that the cop isn't so clean, only you V." Dom told him in amusement.

"I know how to pick them." Vince told Dom smugly.

They were just putting the food on the grill when Vince's phone rang.

"Hey how did the meeting you set up with Braga go?" Vince asked him in the way of a greeting.

Brian had been on a new case infiltrating Braga's drug cartel. He got in as a driver, but after he was through with the driving job Braga's men tried to take everyone out. He managed to escape with a trunkful of cash, and arrange a meeting with the boss. He left three nights ago, and Vince had only heard from the man about what was going on through text messages.

"Fucking terrible," he snarled.

Dom walked up to Vince, "Is that Brian?" Vince nodded. "Tell him to come over and get some food we have plenty."

Vince nodded at Dom and relayed the message to Brian. "Dom said come eat." Vince listened to Brian on the other end and frowned. "He says thanks, but he's in a fucking mood because things got blown to hell. He's just going to go home so he doesn't ruin anyone's night."

Dom looked at the frown on Vince's face and held out his hand. "Fuck that give me the phone." Vince handed over the phone and Dom put it up to his ear. "Brian you got to be hungry." Vince watched as Dom listened and his nose screwed up in disgust. "That shit doesn't count as food. Get your ass over here get a hug from Vince, eat some real food and rant all about to it us. It's a lot better than sitting on your couch eating spaghetti out of can alone."

Dom hung up the phone after hearing Brian tell him fine. "On his way," Dom told Vince.

"Thanks Dom," Vince said with a smile.

Brian walked into the backyard with a small smile on his face but the tightness of it let Vince know he was still pissed.

The angry waves coming off of him were only the half the problem, the other was a rather large bruise on the side of Brian's face that was shaped like the upper part of a boot. His face was swollen, but there also looked to be a flat spot where the boot mark was.

"Damn man you're supposed to wear boots on your feet not your face." Leon told him.

"Yeah I'm aware," he said dryly.

"What the hell happened?" Vince asked while gently touching Brian's face and looked at him in concern when he winced.

"Vince," Dom called out. "Get the man a beer, and maybe a painkiller, before you start making him relive horror stories." Vince nodded and walked into the house. "And you," he said while pointing at Brian, "just remember it's not nice to tell interesting shit when a man is busy at the grill." Brian nodded at Dom.

Vince came back with a pill and a beer and ushered Brian over to a chair. He pushed him down in it, and handed the two things to the man.

When everyone sat down Mia spoke first. "Are you sure nothings broke?" Brian shrugged in response. "No one checked you out before you left?" She asked surprised.

Brian looked more sheepish than angry; he reached up and scratched the back of his head. "Uhh yeah well you see, the medical team kind of avoided me after I punched one of them."

"Brian!" Mia scolded.

Brian put his hands up, "the guy was up in my face Mia! Barking at me to sit the fuck down, pushing me around, and when he wrapped his fingers around my throat to push me down in a chair, I lost it."

"And what were you doing wrong that cause him to do that?" Mia wasn't a fool, she had heard similar stories over the years from Vince and Dom. Guy in my face, not my fault, didn't do anything wrong, they always did something wrong to cause it.

"I wasn't doing anything wrong Mia," Brian said trying to sound innocent.

"Uh huh," she drawled giving him a look like you want to try again.

"Trying to kill Stasiak isn't wrong Mia! It's a service to the city, shit it's a service to the whole damn country!"

"How did you try to service your country?" Dom asked Brian his smirk as big as Vince's.

"Honestly it wasn't that bad, I mean sure I threatened to beat him with his own gun, and sure I even tried, but it could have been a lot worse. I could have said I was going to shoot him with it, I think I should get points there. Besides if he didn't want me to try to murder him with his own weapon he should really hold on to it better than that. Also the medic should have never interfered I was just helping the process of weeding out the idiots, starting with Stasiak." Brian crossed his arms, and everyone was pretty sure Brian honestly thought that what he said was true.

"What he do?" Leon asked, having never met the man, he didn't know about the little hate fest the two had going on.

"He was suppose to wait for my signal, did he though? No, he swooped in after he got a hasty confirmation, that wasn't even correct. It turned into a fucking shootout, and the real Braga got away. While the fake one got brought in to be questioned, all they found out from him is that he was paid actor. I knew he wasn't the real Braga, but it didn't keep everyone in that fucking room from blaming me. So I got my face kicked in, and I'm on desk duty!"

Dom pushed the beer towards the heated man, and nodded. Brian could have come out of that a lot worse, and it pissed Dom off like the rest of the family. Brian was quickly becoming one of them, and you didn't put a member of their family in jeopardy.

Vince looked over at Brian's face in concern, "Mia do you think it's broken?"

"I'm not sure, it looks pretty bad. Brian how's the pain?" She asked him.

Brian shrugged, "still to hopped up on anger and adrenaline, the pain is starting to leak through but just barely."

"Let Mia check it." He told Brian.

"Nah I'm good right now, I'll know in like another half hour how bad the pain is."

"Brian let her check it," Vince growled out.

"Vince leave me alone," Brian did the same.

"Hey," Dom called out. "I think what Vince is trying to say is that he is concerned, and would like Mia to take a look." He said while looking at Brian. "And I think what Brian is trying to say is that he's pissed, injured, and doesn't want to be told what to do, so maybe ask instead V."

Both men nodded and gave each other a look of apology. "Sorry, told you I was in a shit mood," Brian told him.

"Vince kissed Brian's good cheek, "sorry, will you let Mia check out your face, it looks even more swollen than it first did."

Brian nodded and Mia stood up and walked over to him, "going to hurt a bit," she said while reaching out for his cheek.

"Fuck," Brian said when she pushed on his face.

After a few moments Mia stepped back, "I think you have a small fracture in your cheekbone, it doesn't feel like it's out of place, so all you can do is wait for it to heal. I will go get some ice to help with the swelling."

"Thanks," Brian said, getting up from his chair and crawling sideways into Vince's lap, and leaned into the man's chest. Vince wrapped Brian tightly in his arms and kissed his head, Brian's anger slowly started leaking out of him and he looked a bit more relaxed in Vince's hold.

Mia brought back an ice pack and smiled at the two men, Brian put it on his face with a hiss. Everyone started speaking about different topics and watched as Brian relaxed even more, they kept going to help calm him down.

Brian's phone rang and he carelessly threw it up to his ear without checking the caller ID.

"Detective O' Conner speaking." Brian said while trying borough further in Vince's hold.

"Brian," Tej said through the other end.

"Hey man, it's not really a good time." Brian told him.

"There is someone in a suit here at the shop asking for you." Tej said in concern.

"Who?" Brian asked feeling anxious.

"Says his name is Penning."

Brian rolled his eyes; he so didn't want to put up with that man's shit. "Tell him I died." He felt Vince let out a laugh.

"Yeah well that's going to work out real well homeboy since he can hear me talking to you." Tej bit out sarcastically.

Brian grunted, "tell him anyways."

He heard Tej speak in the background "Brian says he's dead." Brian heard the sound phone being wrestled out of Tej's hand.

"Detective O' Conner." Penning said seriously.

"Agent Penning," Brian said back.

"Amazing, a dead man can speak."

"What can I say, you caught me. What a miracle, I live so you can bother me." He snarled out.

"Yes well it seems like I'm good at catching things unlike you."

Brian tensed and everyone looked on worriedly. "Never pictured you as the type that throws salt in wounds, but thanks for that Agent. Haven't missed a mark in six years, and now everyone is being a fucking critic about a failed op that wasn't even my fault."

"Look Brian, I'm down here working in Miami, Verone has escaped."

"Fuck," Brian cursed out. Just what he needed. "Got any more bad news to throw at me? I mean I don't think my day wasn't shitty enough." He said sarcastically.

"Actually I do, Verone is running with Braga, as far as I know from intel I gathered, I think they are running for Mexico."

"Which is where jurisdiction ends." Brian said moodily.

"Not mine, and not yours if I allow it that is."

Brian sat up a bit at hearing that, "what do you have in mind Agent?"

"Killing two birds with one stone I think, I give you permission to go into Mexico and you bring them both back out."

"What's the catch?" Brian asked knowing there would be one.

"I can get clearance for you, not anyone else."

Brian snorted and leaned back, "so I cross the border with no backup, drag two of the most dangerous drug lords back across all by myself. What a catch Penning."

"Brian I can open a lot more doors for you, if you do this. You could leave LAPD and become an Agent."

"You think I took this case because I wanted a job offer?" Brian hissed out. "I took it because the FEDs picked three LAPD undercover cops to go in as Braga drivers, three men that had no business to be in there. They got shot the minute they stepped out of their cars after the race trial. I might not have all the brotherly bond shit with my fellow officers, but I can't just sit back and watch them slaughtered and do nothing."

"I know that Brian, the offer is just a plus, we need someone with your skills in our office."

"I'm done with undercover Penning, I'm not in the right mind set for it anymore, too much to lose." Brian said looking up at Vince who shot him a huge grin.

"Just leave the job offer to think over later, what about Mexico though?"

"I'll call you back," Brian told him. "I'm sure you know how to get my number from Tej's phone."

"Of course, I'll send you my own details." He hung up after.

Brian threw his phone down on the table and looked around to see everyone's questioning faces. "Verone the one I caught in Miami, he's out of prison, it's only a matter of time before he comes after me personally. He's running with Braga now, and they are in Mexico. I've just been given clearance to go pick them up and bring them back, it's just me though no other agent or cop can go." He said with a closed off face, that morphed into a smirk. "Also the FEDs are offering me a job apparently."

"Shit," Vince said, Brian going off by himself to Mexico wasn't something Vince was okay with, and he knew Dom was thinking the same. They both looked at each other and nodded. "We are going with you."

"What no, it's too dangerous." Brian said.

"Then it is for you as well." Dom pointed out, no wasn't an option here. The sooner Brian figured that out the better.

"Didn't you hear me Verone will be coming after me soon enough, I need to do this and get the drop on him first." He tried to logically explain.

"Then we are going with you Brian," Dom said in a voice that said it was worthless to argue.

"Agree or call that guy back and tell him no, we ain't letting you do this yourself." Vince told him while tightening his hold.

Brian narrowed his eyes at both men, "then you'll do exactly what I say, you two are civilians, I ain't bringing back anyone injured."

"We promise we will listen to directions Detective." Vince purred.

Vince was speeding after Brian in the tunnels with Verone tied up in the passenger seat in his car. "I've seen the way you look at him you know," Verone taunted. "It's too bad that he won't live long enough for you to two be together again. He must be good yes? A pretty boy like him must take it like a bitch in heat, I won't lie I thought about it myself."

Vince took one hand off the wheel and hit Verone in the head hard with the butt of his shot gun. He watched in satisfaction as the man knocked out cold.

They had made it through, past the border thanks to Brian's knowledge of the tunnels that Braga used. Everyone was fine, it had been a close call for Brian when a man named Phoenix almost shot him but Brian was able to hold on to the man's ankle long enough for Dom to run him down.

"Does anyone want to tell me why Verone is passed out?" The agent named Penning asked while looking at Brian.

"Hey don't look at me this time, it was him." He said pointing at Vince.

"He shouldn't speak about people who belong to someone else." Vince growled out, too pissed to control what he said. Brian glanced over at him with a knowing look.

"I trust that Dom and Vince's involvement will be kept off paper, right Agent Penning?" Brian turned his gaze over to the agent and said threateningly to the man.

"No need for threats Brian, it will read as you went across the border on your own, no one else will be mentioned."

"Good," Brian told him. He didn't want any other cops snooping around, Dom and Vince both had to kill a few goons to save their lives, it was best that be kept on the down low.

Brian watched as Vince opened the door to his house, and all three men stumbled through the door. "Remind me why I'm here again." Dom said tiredly.

"Because we lost all three of the cars we had back there in the tunnel, and Agent dipshit Dunn, how he keeps popping up I don't know, only agreed to drive us here." Brian told him.

The minute Brian walked into his house he knew something was wrong, someone had been there. He walked quietly over to a side table beside the couch and grabbed a gun taped to the underside. "Cops really do that, thought it was just in the movies," Dom said in a whisper to Vince. Brian put his finger up to his mouth to let both men know to be quiet.

He put the gun up and started walking around checking to see if anyone was still there. He heard a sound coming from the kitchen, and crept into the room, he pointed gun with his finger on the trigger at the man standing in his kitchen.

"Brian what the hell man?" Rome yelled out.

Brian flipped the safety back on, "I should be asking you that cuz. I told you a million times not to go sneaking around my space, I'm a cop for Christ sakes, I almost shot you again!" Both men glared at each other, then Rome let out a laugh at the same time Brian did, and they dove in for a hug. "It's good to see you Rome."

"You too Brian." He said with a smile. "I got here days ago, but you weren't here, and you didn't answer any of my calls."

"I had to dump my phone before I went over the border into Mexico. This is why you should call a cuz before you just pop on over."

"What the hell you doing in Mexico?" Rome asked but forgot all about the question when he saw two men walk into the kitchen. "Who are they, they don't look like cops."

"They aren't, Rome this is Vince and Dom," he said while pointing at who was who. "Guys this Rome, we've know each other since we were like ten."

Both Dom and Vince looked over at each other, just like them they thought.

Rome nodded at the men in greeting, "so Mexico and what happened to your face? I knew you weren't telling me all the shit that goes on down here, it's why I thought I pop in, in the first place."

"Had to go pick up Verone." Brian told him.

"No shit, that fucker got out?" Rome asked. "You alright, he do that?"

"Nah this happened with a different case, that Braga one I was running, remember I did actually tell you about that one." Brian said looking proud of himself.

"Yeah the one you did cuz some cops that you knew died."

"Yeah man, anyways Verone was running with Braga and they ran all the way home to Mexico. Was suppose to go pick them up on my own, but those two insisted they go with."

Rome looked over at Vince and Dom appraisingly. "You two went with him to watch my brother's back?"

"Yeah," Dom told him while Vince nodded, "he's a part of our family."

"Which one you dating Brian?" Rome asked after a few minutes of silence.

"How you figure?" Brian asked back.

"I know you man, built and shit is your type. Honestly I'm leaning more towards grumpy looking brunette over there; you always did have a thing for tattoos."

Dom laughed and Vince smirked, and Brian punched Rome in the arm, "shut the fuck up cuz," he hissed.

"Oh I'm right then." He said with a large smile.

"You are," Vince told him while sticking his hand out.

Rome took his hand and looked him in the eye, "just so were clear, I'll kill your ass if you hurt him, I was in Chino for three years I'm not afraid of doing what needs to be done."

Dom tensed at threat, but let it go; if Rome was Brian's brother in all but blood he had every right to threaten Vince away from doing damage. Dom realized he had never done the same, he didn't feel like it was necessary, Brian had this extreme loyalty thing going on about him, he knew the man wouldn't hurt Vince.

Brian scoffed and walked over to his fridge and pulled it open. "Damn it Rome!" He yelled out and slammed the door. "Vince just stocked that shit, and you ate everything?"

"I was hungry," Rome said unconcerned.

"You brought your car?" Brian asked with a glare.

"Of course man."

"Is it still purple?" Brian sneered.

"Fuck you Bri, where's your skyline huh?"

Brian grabbed at his heart like he had been shot, "ouch you bastard. The Skyline was a thing of beauty cut down to early in life, unlike your purple monstrosity of a Spyder."

"I'm thinking you want something from me brah, because you're asking about my car. You know that ain't the way to get something you want."

"You ate all my food, you owe me." He said with a darker glare.

"Have to agree; since I bought all that shit you ate." Vince chimed in.

"Thought it was odd you had a stocked fridge."

"You mean he's always been like that?" Vince questioned. "Thought it was just because of the job."

"Nah man, Brian always finds more "important" things to do than eat."

"Ugh, I'd like to eat now, if you're both done talking about me like I ain't here." Brian grouched out.

Vince looked at Brian guilty like, but Rome just stared unimpressed.

"Going undercover again, joining gangs, and you're still not eating."

"I'm eating! Vince makes sure of that!"

Rome looked at Vince questioningly, "I do."

"Where you wanna go?" Rome asked dropping the subject of his complaints.

"Mine," Dom answered, "Mia's cooking spaghetti."

"Hope she made extra," Brian said looking at Rome.

"You know I got a high metabolism."

"Yeah, and a big mouth." Brian said back.

Rome stuck around for a couple of weeks taking the time to get to know Brian's new family. He studied the interactions between his friend and every member, especially with Vince. He liked what he saw, he knew Vince was good for him, that they were good for him.

He also did some looking around L.A., and he was thinking about joining Brian and the Toretto team, they had accepted him easily enough, just from being Brian's friend, he thought he could be happy here. His only complaint was the race setup, which Brian readily agreed, once you did the shit they did in Miami, quarter miles didn't quite seem enough.

"Man Brian is there anywhere here we can go to make things more interesting?" Rome asked while they all sat outside one Friday night.

"What me and you race?" Brian asked in amused disbelief.

"Yeah man, do something like that little interstate race we did in Miami."

"The Supra isn't ready yet," Brian said with a small pout.

Vince grinned from his spot under Brian and grabbed his keys out of his pocket and held them in front of Brian.

"Really?" Brian asked in shock.

"Of course," he told Brian and kissed the back of his head.

Brian grinned, "I know a place, but are you really ready to get your ass kicked again?"

"You don't know that I'm going to lose, someone had to take your name in Florida." Rome said cockily.

"You didn't take my name, cuz you haven't beaten me, and if you think that's going to happen tonight your dead wrong. I'll be glad to race you though."

"What are we talking about here?" Dom asked.

"I know an impound lot that we can use, do a little drifting." Brian smirked. "But why stop there, you know let's start off with a quarter mile, do some drifting, finish backwards."

"What?" Vince asked and Brian wondered if the man regretted handing over his keys.

"Trust me man, this is my specialty." Brian said confidently.

"Yeah that and the stare and drive," Rome smirked.

"He knows that one," Brian shrugged.

"He did the stare and drive on you? You know he got that from me right?" Rome asked loudly and Brian scoffed at the man and his delusions.

Vince smiled at the memory, it had been the first time he saw Brian drive in person. They were in busy down town L.A., and Brian eyes locked with his. He weaved in and out of cars in heavy traffic and never looked away. He didn't take his eyes of Vince's until he stopped at a stop sign. "I'm sure he does it better." Brian smirked when Rome let out a noh hell no in reply.

"So what do you say Rome, you ready to lose?" Brian stood up and pulled Vince up as well.

"Man you can't win them all, let's go," he said standing up himself.

The whole team followed Vince and Brian to an impound lot on the out skirts of town, when they got to the gate Brian got out of the car and walked up to the man guarding the lot.

They watched as Brian passed over some cash, and the man nodded. He walked back to Vince's car and got in. Vince drove through when the gate opened.

"So it's even simple enough to understand for you Rome," Brian joked after everyone was out of their cars.

"Shut it Bri," he told him.

"Quarter mile down the middle, then we break off to our own rows. We drift in and out three times around those set of cars to reach back down here, and then we race backwards to the starting line. Try to not hit the cars when you swing out this time Rome," he grinned.

"You're going down you crazy ass white boy." He said with a matching grin.

They lined their cars up and everyone else stood at the side out of the way. It was decided that Letty would call the race, which was odd for her, she raced not called them.

Vince walked over to Brian and pulled him in for a long kiss on the mouth, it wasn't something they had ever done in front of anyone, they had kept it to hand holding, pecks, and Brian sitting on Vince's lap. Brian looked surprised at the change for a second, but he caught on quickly and kissed the man back.

"You see this is why I shouldn't be calling the race, Vince should, he's obviously the race bunny here." Letty told Dom who laughed.

Vince pulled away from the kiss and wished Brian good luck while flipping Letty off. Brian gave Vince a heated look, and the man knew what would happen after the race.

Brian and Rome both lined up, and Vince kept his eyes glued on Brian the whole time. The man looked like he usually did, calm, focused, it was a look that Vince knew he kept on his face even when he was in danger. He saw it on several occasions in Mexico, times he had been frightened himself, he would look over and think Brian would be as well, but he never was. It was like the man was fearless; honestly Vince didn't want to see what was frightening enough to scare Brian.

They zoomed off, and for all the bitching Rome did about the quarter mile he was actually pretty good at it, he had a lead on Brian, and was laughing at the blonde man as he drove onto the next row.

Vince saw Brian look over at Rome and smirk, before he started to drift his way down the second row, and he knew then why Brian had let Rome get ahead of him. Rome was going too fast to handle the first drift smoothly, and he ended up clipping the end of a car. Brian however was going the perfect speed and was done with that part by the time Rome was finished with the second drift. He flipped the car around threw it in to reverse, and crossed the finish line a whole ten seconds before Roman.

Vince smirked and looked over at the rest of his family. Jesse's jaw was practically on the ground; Leon was smiling hugely from the show he just saw. Mia had probably the most subdued reaction but she smiled just the same. Dom had a proud and impressed look on his face, which made Vince smile, he was just as proud. Even Letty was impressed as hell with Brian, and she was the hardest to impress out of everyone.

Vince walked over to Brian when he had gotten out of the car and pulled him into another kiss.

"Man get a room," Rome yelled.

"Hater," Brian said loudly, "since you lost, you're staying at Dom's tonight." Brian said as he passed Vince his keys back with a grin.

The man grabbed his keys and got in his car with Brian doing the same. They took off out of the impound lot and went in the direction of Brian's place. Rome had been staying with Brian this entire time, and had severely cut into their private time when at man's house. They would have just stayed in Vince's room, since his room in the basement was the ideal spot, soundproof, but Brian wanted to spend time with his friend.

When they arrived they just about ran through the door, and Vince had his mouth on Brian's right as they stepped through the door. He tore off Brian's shirt and his as well.

Brian slipped out Vince's hold and slipped out of his pants. He stood in front of the other in man in just boxers, he was obviously hard. "I would say it was from the race," Brian said, "but the truth is I've been hard since you kissed me."

Vince growled and reached out to grab onto Brian. He licked the man's neck, and bit down. "You know how hot that was?" He growled again and Brian moaned. His knees buckled from the feeling of Vince kissing his neck, but Vince had a tight hold on Brian's hips and kept him upright.

They never made it to the bedroom that night, after several rounds they were too tired to get up off the floor, so Brian grabbed a blanket off the couch and threw it over them before they drifted off asleep.

"My eyes!" Rome screamed out. "Jesus, that's what a bedroom is for."

Brian darted up in sleepy shock when he heard Rome yell, Vince only lifted his head enough to glare hatefully at the man.

"I'm going to go take a shower, you two should pick up the clothes off the floor, and I don't know maybe put them on." He said not sticking around to see if they did as he suggested.

Brian was making breakfast when Rome came out of the bathroom. He placed a plate down on the table for the man and smiled at him. When he took a good look at Rome his smiled faded. "You're leaving, today."

"Yeah, thinks it time to head back."

"Oh," Brian said, it was the same tone he got when Vince could usually tell there was something wrong. Not overly sad or angry just off.

Brian knew that it would happen sooner or later, Rome had a shop to get back to, but he couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Vince walked up behind Brian and wrapped his arms around him.

Rome must have noticed Brian's mood shift as well, because he quickly started to speak. "Yeah man, got to find a buyer for the shop, need some money if I'm going to find a place here. Can't live with you two if I'm going to be walking in on a scene like I did this morning."

"Really?" Brian asked letting his indifferent mask drop enough for both men to see the thought made Brian happy.

"Yeah, got to be around to keep you in line, I think your boy here lets you get away with too much." He sat down and started to dig in. "I should be back in a couple of weeks."

Brian stepped out of Vince's hold and walked over to Rome. He gave him a short tight hug, and then disappeared into his room. Vince watched him go in confusion.

"Just the way he is sometimes," Rome said to him. "He can handle almost any other emotion, but allowing himself to show he is happy, it's difficult for him."

Vince nodded he got what the man was saying didn't quite understand it, but he got it.

"Not with you though I've noticed, he looks so honestly happy with you. He's never been that happy before. Just keep him that way and you and me won't ever have any issues."

"I plan on it," Vince told him seriously.

The last three weeks had been more than peaceful, Rome had found a buyer for the shop, and was just finishing packing everything up, he had called Brian and told him he should be out sometime next week. They had stayed over a the Toretto house more than Brian's, it felt right having Brian there with him, and Vince knew it made Brian happy as well.

The others too, Jesse loved having Brian around to talk to, Brian was a calming presence for Jess, and could talk about rebuilding a car all day long.

Dom was also happy about having another mechanic around at the shop on Brian's days off. The blonde man knew his way around a motor and fit in perfectly at DTs.

Mia was perhaps the happiest aside from Vince, Brian had medical training that he had gotten on the job, and he could listen and remark on her studies when she talked about them. It was something that everyone realized she had been missing this whole time, someone who actually understood the technical side of what she does.

Leon loved to hear the stories that Brian brought home with him from work. He always was one for a listening to an exciting tale, about car chases and shootouts.

Letty just felt like Brian completed things a bit, like they had been missing that part of their family till now. She also liked having someone around who was into call of duty just like she was, and Brian actually being able to play well was a plus.

They slipped into an easy routine, and Vince wanted to make things more permanent, that's what caused him to drag Brian out of the house to sit on the front steps.

"I've been thinking," Vince said, all of his normal cockiness gone, he knew his anxiousness was apparent. "Maybe you should just move in here, with me. Let Rome take over your house."

It took a while from Vince to meet the man's eyes, but when he did he saw Brian had a rather large smile on his face. "Yeah, sounds like a great idea, I'll let Rome know."

Vince wasted no time in grabbing Brian's face and pulling him in for a kiss, telling Brian everything he couldn't find the words for in it.

It had been a long day at the garage, and everyone was feeling the effects of too many tire changes, and oil jobs. They had been twice as busy since Brian had suggested DT's to some of the guys in his office. It started with a few more guys coming in here and there; sending their wives in to get their cars looked at since Brian had assured the men that Dom wouldn't scam them just because they are women. It ended up with Dom being able to strike a deal with Brian's Sergeant and now they had a steady income of patrol cars through their doors.

Vince looked at the clock and knew Brian would be off soon, he got a call late last night and had to rush in. Vince wasn't sure what had went on, because he was asleep, he only knew Brian had left when he read a note left by the man that morning.

Like clockwork the door opened at 5:00 and Brian stepped in. He looked terrible, almost like he had been crying, and the tension in his face showed that he was furious.

"Brian what happened?" Mia asked when she looked up from her book and noticed the anger that shinned off Brian's face.

Brian sighed heavily and threw himself down on the couch next to Vince. "Tanner is in the hospital."

"What?" Dom asked concerned, he had really started to like the man thanks to their new business deal. "What happened?"

"Tran," Brian hissed and everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up. "Tanner has had a long battle with the fucker apparently, I didn't even know." Brian rubbed his hands over his eyes, "Fuck!" He yelled at no one in particular. "Tanner wasn't even suppose to be out there! He's a Sergeant for Christ sakes he has little minions for this shit, hell he has me!"

"What happened Brian?" Vince asked this time hoping the man could calm down enough to explain.

"Tanner was sneaking into their garage trying to nail them for some truck jackings that went on over a year ago. Tanner isn't sure if they did it, but he knows they at least knew who did." Brian was so busy talking that he never noticed everyone's worried glances at each other. "It's not just about the jackings anymore, he's been killing off mechanics apparently, but they can't find any evidence of that, so Tanner was trying to get something, anything he could on him. Which is fucking stupid, it's been a year, everything is probably already wiped clean. He shouldn't have been there, and if he wanted them so badly he should have just called me!" He yelled out at the end. "They got the jump on him, beat him, shot him and then dumped him in some unknown location. It's still not clear if he's going to make it or not," Brian let out a shaky breath.

Vince threw his arm around Brian and tugged in him closer. "Tanner is by the book, he can't say he was there because he didn't have a warrant. They could just turn it back around on him, breaking into their property and shit, felt endangered, that whole spiel." Brian got a determined look on his face, "just wanted you all to know what's about to go on, I can't just stand by, blowing the fact that I'm a cop or not, it's Tanner. I owe him a lot, and I'm going to take down Tran and Lance."

"Shit," Vince cursed out while everyone else looked like they had seen a ghost.

Brian looked around the room and knew something was going on. "Alright spill," Brian told them, but before they could answer he spoke again. "I don't expect any of you to talk if you know something I wouldn't ask that of you, if that's what you're worried about. I'm the best at what I do for a reason I can nail the bastard on my own."

"It's not that Brian," Dom said knowing he would have to trust Brian, knowing that he already did. "Tran does know who did it, and we were the ones jacking trucks."

"Fuck," Brian said pushing to his feet, he walked into the clear spot of the room and started to pace. "If I arrest him he will sell you out to keep his ass out of lock up." Dom nodded Tran would without a doubt.

Brian kept pacing for a bit while he thought, he stopped walking and got a serious look on his face. "Evidence, tell me about the evidence is there any?"

"No," Letty told him.

"We had the cars wiped down, and sold off to Mexico they are long gone." Dom told him.

Brian nodded, "the merchandise long gone as well?"

Vince spoke, "yeah, sold for cash, we never used real names and never showed our faces. It can't be traced back to us in anyway."

"I need every detail, about the cars they way you did the job, I mean everything, don't leave a single thing out. Tires, motors, car types, colors, everything."

It took an hour but they were able to give Brian all the information he asked for, and they watched as the man took notes on what they said.

Brian nodded when they were through, "this just got a lot easier and harder all at the same time. I'll take care of it." Brian said looking more determined than he first did.

"How are you going to take care of it and us not end up in a cell?" Letty asked.

Brian shook his head, "its best if I not tell you anything. What I'm going to do, it's not going to be legal, and a lot of people at work know my ties to you, they might come asking around here first to try to implicate me or clear me."

"Brian..." Dom said in a tone that made his thoughts on the subject clear.

"No," Brian said forcibly. "You're going to have to trust me. Trust that I know what it means for you to let me be a part of this family, and once you did that I wouldn't let anything bad happen to any of you." Everyone had no doubt what Brian had just said was true. "I'm going to clean this shit up, and I ain't letting any of you go down for it." Vince stood up and grabbed on to Brian's hand and pulled him back towards him, he sat down and Brian followed onto his lap. Vince gave Brian a gentle squeeze in thanks.

"We trust you Brian," Dom said while everyone nodded. Vince bent down to kiss Brian's head he knew where he stood.

"Just don't do anything stupid," Vince told him, not liking what was going to happen but knowing he didn't have much of a choice.

Brian laughed a little. "That's like telling me not breathe."

Vince huffed wasn't that the truth, "I know but I'm telling you to hold your breath for a while alright."

Brian nodded, and then got serious again. "Stay clear of Tran and Lance for a few days, no interaction, stay off their turf. I don't want a single thing that ties any of you to it."

"Alright," Dom said giving everyone a hard look until they all nodded. "I don't like this just hanging back shit while you do whatever it is you're going to do."

"I know man, but it's got to be this way." Brian told him.

"So what's the deal with Tanner," Leon asked, trying to get subject off of Brian handling Tran on his own. "You said you owed him."

Brian sighed, "When I got out of the academy, I was 19 and all invincible and shit. Tanner worked in Miami with me before he got promoted and moved here. Was on my first undercover and fucked it up royally. Ended up strung up in a warehouse and near death." Vince tightened his grip like he usually did when Brian let out information like that. "Had been there for a few days, and hadn't called to check in with my handler. Tanner came in guns blazing no back up, against the wishes of higher ups to get me out of there. They didn't think three days of me not reporting in was anything worth blowing my cover. He took a demotion to save my life, never complained, never threw my mistake in my face, just said it was worth it. I never made another mistake while I was undercover again. Learned the hard way, I still carry some scars from it." He shrugged, "but it shaped me into what I am now, the youngest to get the detective badge in LAPD history, and Tanner just always looked at me with this insanely proud look on his face. He's why I transferred to L.A., instead of a different branch, I umm...missed him I guess." He said the last part uncomfortably like it took a great deal to admit his feelings about someone.

Brian turned to face Vince, "I told you I didn't have family cause for the most part it's true." He looked at everyone else, "my parents could still be out there somewhere, or they could be dead. I haven't bothered to ever look them up, they left me, didn't want me, so I decided that I didn't want or need them." Vince knew Brian believed in what he was saying, he sounded so sure, but there was a different emotion in his eyes. Like maybe he wasn't so okay with the fact they didn't want him. "Tanner though he's kind of like a father I guess, one I found later in life, one that chose to stick around, think I was good enough, and Tran put a bullet into him." He said angrily.

"You got family now," Vince told Brian.

"Yeah I do, and nothing is going to happen to it."

Everyone was tense; Mia had been staring off into space a lot the last three days, worried about something going wrong and her family being carted off to jail, worried that something would happen to Brian.

Dom and Letty had been sniping at each other over the smallest things. It what they always did when the stress became too much. Take it out on each other because they knew it was safe to do so. When it was all over they would apologize and it would be like it never happened.

Leon kept his worry to himself, so he could better keep Jesse calm. Every time Jesse drifted off in thought Leon would distract him with a project.

Vince was probably the worst of all, he wasn't much use around the house or garage, and no one gave him any slack about it. Just let him be, and he appreciated that. The worry for Brian consumed his every thought, and sometimes he caught himself in a panic from thoughts about what Tran would do to the other man if he caught Brian doing whatever he was doing. Vince was pretty sure that was half the problem, with almost every case Brian went on he explained what he was doing to Vince. Either before he went in, or during the case by text. This time though Vince had no clue what Brian had planned, he wasn't able to look it at like steps Brian had to take in order to be successful and safe. After three days with no word Vince was only wishing for Brian to be safe, he didn't care if he went to jail anymore, he just wanted Brian alive and alright.

The phone rang out and everyone looked to it at the same time.

It was Dom's and everyone scowled when the realized it wasn't Brian calling Vince.

"What's up Hector?" Dom answered into the phone.

"Man Dom, I just saw a bunch of ambulances and cops over at Tran's garage."

"Really?" Dom asked trying to sound clueless and wanting to draw more information out of Hector.

"Yeah I know you and Tran have some animosity going on and shit and you wouldn't really care about that, but I saw Brian being loaded into an ambulance." Dom froze and Vince knew immediately something was wrong, he tried to get Dom to tell him what Hector said but the man didn't. "I know Brian is a part of your team, so I thought you want to know. The ambulance took off in a hurry, I'm sure they were on the way to the hospital."

"Thanks," Dom told him and hung up. "Brian's been taken to some hospital," he looked at Vince who was about to speak, "I don't know what happened V, Jesse start calling hospitals and find out where he is."

Jesse got lucky and found Brian on the first call. "Los Angeles Memorial," he told Dom.

The team made it to the hospital in record speed, they asked the front desk about Brian, and sighed in relief when they would tell them what was going on since Vince was Brian's emergency contact.

Vince and Dom were the first people in the room, since they could only go in two at a time.

When they walked into the room Vince made a mad rush to a sleeping Brian. His shoulder was taped up and in a sling. He was breathing in his sleep and Vince took comfort in that.

Dom noticed the man Brian was sharing a room with before Vince did. "It's nice to see your okay Tanner," he told the man who was watching them with wide opened eyes. "You know what happened?"

Tanner nodded, "more than what he said I'm sure." Dom looked at the man uneasily. "No, don't tell me anything if you know, don't tell anyone anything. Whatever he says is what happened."

Dom nodded, "what did he say?"

"There was another truck jacking reported, and Brian went to the victim to get the details. It matched a description of a job I worked a year ago, that I had a man named Tran pegged for, he got a warrant and went in last night to search his garage. He found what he needed to arrest Tran, and went back for him today. The man's cousin Lance was there though, and Brian got shot, two rounds in the shoulder. He shot both Tran and Lance because he felt his life was at stake, they are both dead."

Dom nodded and like Tanner he knew there was more to the story, he just knew why. Dom was relieved that it looked like Tanner didn't know they were the ones that pulled off the heist a year ago.

Brian startled a little when he woke, but calmed quickly when he saw Vince. "Hey," he whispered to the worried man.

"Hector called and said he saw you being loaded into an ambulance, scared the shit out of me Brian." Vince told him.

"I'm sorry," he rasped.

"It's okay, your okay right?" Vince asked.

"I'm okay, they got the bullets out, I got a shattered humerus and clavicle," he looked over at Dom. "Looks like I'll be out of the shop for a few days."

Dom snorted but Tanner spoke, "try a few months Brian."

"And here I thought you knew me better than that."

"I do," Tanner said in concern. "I also knew you would miss me at the station, but you didn't have to end up in the bed next to mine to see me."

Brian let out a hoarse chuckle, "what else was suppose to do, stay there and take my orders from Stasiak, the powers gone to his head by the way."

Tanner sighed, "I swear the two of you and your bickering is going to make me go gray."

"To late for that," Brian said with a smirk. "Your old man, just admit it, you were old when we first met."

"You're lucky your injured Brian and so far away, or I would show you just how not old I am."

Brian laughed, "whatever you say Tanner."

Vince smiled at Brian's laugh, " how long you in for?"

Brian's smile faded, "ten to fourteen days, can you believe it. They are thinking about letting him," Brian pointed to Tanner, "out before me."

"I'm going to need some clothes," he told Dom who nodded.

"V you don't have to..."

"I'm staying," he told Brian firmly.

"Your funeral then," Brian told him as joke, "if the food don't kill you, the boredom will."

"Or his snarky attitude after he's been stuck in here for a few days." Tanner told him like he had seen it before.

"Yes well if you had just brought me some cold cases to go through like I asked I would have been doing something." Brian said exasperated.

Tanner sighed, "when you're in the hospital you should be relaxing not working."

Brian opened his mouth to speak, but Vince cut him off. "I'll have Jesse set you up with some cars to work out designs for, only after you've rested for a few days." He tacked on after seeing Brian's grin.

"Deal."

Vince looked like he wanted to kiss Brian but glanced over at Tanner questioningly. Brian rolled his eyes and pulled Vince towards him with his good arm. Vince didn't need any prodding he met Brian's lips and felt so relieved the other man was okay.

Vince stayed with Brian for a few more minutes before he left with Dom to go gather his things so someone else could go see Brian.

Mia and Letty came in the room together and fussed over Brian motherly, "you dumb man," Mia had told him fondly when she saw him.

Leon and Jesse did a lot less fussing; Leon smiled at Brian and ruffled his hair. Jesse held on to Brian's arm, and talked about the last few parts the Supra needed before it was ready for paint, "I'll have it ready by the time you get out," Jesse said with a promised smile.

"Can't wait," Brian said back with an eager grin.

When Jesse and Leon left Tanner looked over at Brian and spoke before Vince could return. "It's nice to see you so happy," he told him. "I'm glad you found a family Brian, it was so hard for me to watch you every time you got hurt, alone in a hospital with only me as a visitor."

Brian smiled, "it is nice, to be a part of this. You sell yourself short though Tanner, I always enjoyed your visits." Tanner smiled himself.

Tanner had been correct, Brian was a mess after laying still for ten days, Vince honestly thought the staff was just letting him go home a few days early because they were tired of his restlessness.

They walked back into the house, and Brian was grabbed and hugged by relieved family members. Mia had made Brian's favorite for dinner, and the man was all smiles at eating real food after that shit he ate in the hospital.

There had been an internal investigation over the time that Brian had been in the hospital and he had been cleared completely, so everyone was waiting anxiously to hear the rest of the story.

"So the truck jacking Tran supposedly did?" Dom asked first.

"I found the dirtiest trucker I could find," he told them. "The man had a rap sheet a mile long, and still was breaking as many laws as he could. I only had to dig for evidence for like a day, before I had enough to put him away for a lifetime." Everyone stared at Brian in shock, knowing where this was going. "I took a patrol car out and pulled him over on his route, showed him the evidence and blackmailed him into reporting a truck jacking."

"What about evidence needed to make his claims look legit?" Jesse asked Brian.

"Wasn't hard to plant it, make it look exactly like you told me your jobs did. I broke his doors took merchandise off of his truck to plant in Trans place. After the trucker was taken care of and he called it in I got the file dumped on my desk. That part was too easy actually I thought I would have to fight for it, but everyone took what happened to Tanner seriously. They wanted Tran's head on a stake, so they gave it to me to do what I do best."

Brian stopped talking and moved his arm like he was trying to adjust it to relieve some of the pain. Vince got up and got Brian a pill form the medication he was prescribed.

"Here Bri," Vince told him while handing it to the man. He watched as Brian took the pill and then gave a gentle push on his back to have him stand. When Brian left his chair Vince sat in his place and Brian sat back down. He started to run his hand through Brian's hair, to help comfort Brian through the pain.

"I staked out Tran's garage for a few days, made notes of movements, what he had in there. I took a list of parts to Harry earlier this week, had him order them under the table. We all know Harry would never sell out anyone in the family, so I knew I could trust him. Once the file fell on my desk things kept falling into place smoothly from there. I got a warrant, went there at night, changed out some parts on the black Hondas Tran had in his garage. Why is that by the way?"

Vince let out a chuckle, "we told you he knew that we were the ones pulling the jobs, he wanted in but Dom always told him no. Tran was trying to pull a few copy cat jobs; it didn't work out for him. Guess he never got rid of the cars."

Brian nodded, "anyways I changed a few things and the cars were exactly like the ones you used. I planted the merchandise in a corner of his garage under a tarp."

"So how did you get shot?" Vince asked.

Brian tensed a bit, "I reported to the higher ups that I got the evidence and was going to bring Tran in. I knew I couldn't really do that, so I went in there and acted like I was going to arrest him. Tran freaked the hell out like I figured he would, and fired off two shots into my shoulder so he could get out. I shot back killed him instantly while he was getting on bike. Lance came in and didn't get past the door before I shot him. I dragged them over to the middle of the room, used gloves to pick up Lance's gun, put his hand on it and shot a few rounds into the wall. Planted Tran's gun beside him, and walked over in front of the shot up wall, laid down and called it in."

Vince's arms were full of tension, "that could have been your head instead of your shoulder."

"Know your mark V, Tran doesn't make a kill shot first very often. Plus if he did get caught he wouldn't want to go down for murdering a cop."

Mia stood up and walked over to Brian to hug him, "you are the best thing to happen to this family," she whispered in his ear.

Brian smiled, "this family and Vince are the best things that has happened to me."

Vince turned Brian's face to look at him, "you're the best thing that happened to me Bri, no questions asked."

Brian grabbed Vince's hand and drug him out of the kitchen with a quick goodbye to everyone.

"Let's get out of here," he said to Vince once they got to the living room.

"Where you want to go?" Vince asked him.

Brian grinned, "Anywhere, I've been stuck looking at four white walls for ten days. I don't care where we go you pick, your favorite place to go or wherever, let's just go do something."

"Alright," Vince said. "My favorite spot," he pulled Brian out of house and over to the black Supra that Jesse had finished.

"Wow," Brian whispered in excitement.

"Kid does good work right?" Brian nodded and got in to the passenger seat.

Vince got in the driver side and started the car, he looked over at Brian smiled and took off.

He drove them to the same beach they went to on their first date.

"This is your favorite spot?" Brian smiled.

"Yeah," Vince said and helped Brian maneuver his way up on the hood, and then laid down beside him. "Thank you, for everything you did, and for coming back to me. I don't want to ever lose you Bri, lose this, I love you."

Brian reached over and grabbed the man's hand with his own good one. "I love you too. Never thought I've thankful for being put on patrol duty."

Vince laughed, "never thought I be thankful for being pulled over. It's a good thing you were bored."

"It's a good thing you're a cop magnet," Brian said with a grin.