Dom was the first to notice her, again. He had noticed that she was there every night for the last month. She stayed in the background. Usually sitting on top of someone else's car, watching, studying, assessing, whatever the hell she was doing. His first thought had been she was a cop, his mindset still focused on Brian's betrayal. And yet somehow, he knew she wasn't, it was like something inside him rebelled at the idea of her being a cop, the one thing he hated most. He refused to believe she was, no, he knew she wasn't. Besides she had this innocent element about her that he just couldn't match with a cop.

And there she was again. She appeared the picture of relaxed, reclining on the hood of someone's car. As she lay there, stretched out, there was no way Dom couldn't look her over, study her. She had on a pair of low riding black skinny jeans tucked into high heeled black boots, and she looked good. She was slim and small, compact Dom thought, as he continued looking. She wore a black vest that would usually go over another top to dress it up, but she just wore the vest, and taking her in, she looked good, really good. Her skin was pale, so it looked good against the black clothes and her long, black and naturally curled hair. Definitely not a cop, Dom thought, cops are never that fine.

"Dom!"

A recognizable shout cut through his thoughts, stare and concentration. He shook his head once before he turned to the newest addition to their team, Kay. She was the youngest in their team, so they all felt they should look out her. But it was Dom who looked after her the most, since Mia wasn't around; Kay seemed to fill up his big brother quota. He saw her run through the crowd to him, her short and dead straight brown hair bouncing. She wore cargo pants, with a shrunken army green tank top, Kay was small as well, but not in the same way as that mysterious girl. Kay was pretty darn strong, she packed a hell of a punch when she wanted to, because her big brother Leon wanted her to know how. The other girl had looked delicate, almost pathetically weak. Kay at least had some hard and defined muscles that all the boys were proud of.

"Kay" He replied as she stood in front of him, "You okay?"

She waved his question away, having so much practice, and Dom smirked at her.

"Jesse wants ya" She said, and then paused as Dom studied her light green eyes, curious as the rest of the team were about the two of them. Everyone could see how good they were for each other. Kay was calm, always, able to sit for hours in one place, but Jesse had his ADD and couldn't sit in one place, at all, ever. In that way they were exactly the opposite, complements of each other, yet Kay was probably the only person Dom knew, which were quite a few people that could keep up with Jesse. She too was unbelievably smart, and the two would spend hours talking, or designing software that the rest of the team could not understand.

She rolled her eyes at Dom. "Hurry ya ass up Dom!"

She frowned as he grinned slowly, evil. Before Kay could react she was over his shoulder, hanging there as if weightless and knowing there was nothing she could do about it. So she didn't bother and just burst out laughing when Dom hit her ass playfully. She smiled to herself, thankful Dom was okay, and playful, glad he hadn't turned into a miserable grouch with all the crap he had thrown at him. So for his benefit, she told herself, she could put up with being embarrassed.

Dom made it over to where Jesse and Vince and Leon were, standing around Leon's yellow skyline.

"What's up boys?" Dom asked as he swung Kay down to the ground. Jesse pulled his head out from under the engine to grin at Kay, who poked her tongue out and walked off, intending to talk with her own friends, and hoping to find Bree.

Leon rolled his eyes at the pair, knowing Jesse or Kay would make a move, sooner or later. He turned to find Dom waiting, so he got straight to it.

"My skyline is acting up, Jesse had to take a look, and apparently someone has been messing with it" Leon was serious at the end and it made Dom stop for a second, a tad shocked.

"Someone is messing with you skyline?" Dom asked incredulous, and when Leon nodded, Dom's face shut down, his stare blank. "Nobody touches our cars. Nobody sabotages this team. Who the hell is stupid enough to do that?"

There were serious looks all round. Nobody had a clue. Dom scanned the crowds in the alley, thinking hard about any enemies, and he caught sight of the mysterious girl again. She had just popped out from under the hood of someone's car, Dom couldn't work out whom, but he was familiar. She was shaking her head at the man who had his back to Dom, and taking, obviously telling him something he didn't want to hear because he started shaking his own head and stiffened up. Apparently this frustrated the girl, who started talking more forcefully, her arms waving about her as she clearly tried to explain something to the man he didn't like. He started waving his arms back at her, and Dom could hear they were yelling now, even as far away as he was, he could distantly hear them. Curious and needing to think, Dom wandered over. The closer he got, the more his smirk grew.

"You are a pathetic excuse for a car racer! No! You're a pathetic excuse for a man!" Her arms were flying about and the man looked furious, his body taught with tension, clearly not liking this girl telling him anything, "You clearly don't know anything about your car! and you're not taking care of it! you don't deserve it!"

Dom's eyebrow lifted, thinking this girl may have gone to far to talk to a man like that, and wondering if he needed to step in to help her if things turned ugly, wanting to step in.

"Who the hell do you think you are, that you can just come in here and tell me how to look after my car?" This man was shouting back at her, clearly had enough of her attitude.

She stepped right into him, close to his face, not the least bit afraid of him, or so it would seem and she said, serious and arrogantly, "My name is Charlotte-Rae and I am the best god-damn racer and mechanic in New York. Who the hell are you?" She looked down at him, even though she stood at a small 5 foot 5, she seemed to degrade him with her look, and Dom nearly took a step back. This girl had some serious attitude.

The man she had spoken to shifted and Dom recognized what he was about to do.

Dom moved forward and grabbed the hand this man had lifted to hit Charlotte-Rae, and held on, tight. Not realising the attention he had also grabbed along with the hand, Dom looked the man right in his eyes, using his all his power, through racing and body to threaten this man.

"And hitting a girl, is even more pathetic. You lift one hand to any girl, and that will be the last thing you lift, understand?"

The man spluttered and tried to get free, but Dom refused to let go.

"Understand?" With his voice as deadly as it was, what was there to do than answer 'I do understand!'. And that's exactly what this man did, before Dom let him go and he ran away.

Shaking his head and ignoring the crowd which had began to disperse, whispering of course, Dom turned, walked to steps and stopped. Suddenly his mysterious girl, Charlotte-Rae was in front of him. Her expression wasn't too thrilled.

"Did I look like I needed help?" Dom was a bit taken aback.

"Well-"

"No" she interrupted him, forceful and staring him straight in the eyes, "I don't need help, I dont' need your help. I am no damsel, so back off. Not everybody needs saving."

With that she turned and flounced away. Dom just stood there. He was just a little bit fascinated by this creature, but also annoyed, because nobody had ever walked over him like that. It went against him, and he knew that no matter how much he wanted to get to know her, he was going to have to lay down the rules of who was in charge.