Letty's POV

I stood on the doorstep of 1327. This was the place I was supposed to have called home for fifteen years of my life. The night air was sharp and nipped at my face and hands. Dom carefully unlocked the door. There was a flutter of excitement in the air. Mia stood close to Dom cradling her sleeping son, but she was practically bouncing on the spot. Brian stood behind Mia and even he looked excited. There was a real atmosphere of coming home, of returning to somewhere they never thought they'd see again.

Dom opened the door then stood back for Mia, gesturing for her to lead the way. With her typically gentle grin she stepped into the hall, her low heels clacking on the tiled floor. Brian was swift to follow, carrying a Moses basket for Jack. Dom waved me forwards but I hesitated. While I'd jumped at the chance to go with them, to be a part of their family, nothing could replace the unease which lingered in my mind, the unshakeable doubt that despite their kindest reassurances I wasn't really a part of this anymore. I was a different person now, well I didn't know who I'd once been.

I stepped into the narrow hallway. The air was musty. It was the air of a house that had been too long locked up. Hot and dry. A stale, choking air. The dim light illuminated the pale cream walls. Every wall was thickly covered in pictures. Frames lined the wall and the little hall table. They were coated with a thin layer of dust. I was drawn to them and lifted one at random, a heavy glass frame. I held the frame tightly in my grasp, afraid of dropping it. I wiped the dust from the surface to see a photo of Dom and I when I looked about seventeen. I frowned when I saw the picture. I was wearing a white dress, it fell to my knees and was tied around my waist with a little black ribbon belt. My hair and makeup had been done properly. Dom was wearing a black shirt and dress jeans. It was nothing like me now. Had I once been girly? Enjoyed doing makeup? I doubted it. If I once had been like that, it hadn't stuck with me now.

Dom inched up behind me. "That was your eighteenth birthday party. Mia picked the dress and did your makeup. She wanted you to have one day in the whole year when you weren't covered in grease or had your hair tied up in a ponytail. Mia talked you into the dress and the makeup. You played along to make her happy."

I smiled at him. "There was me thinking I'd once been a princess type." My words were cutting, scathing, they reflected my personal loathing for the airhead princess girls of the world. Roll your damn sleeves up and get the job done. We didn't fight for independence to waste it fearing what might happen if we break a nail.

"You were never girly," he murmured. "Closest you've ever been to the princess type was the warrior princess. You were a new breed, a misunderstood breed. People didn't understand you cause your archetype hasn't been born yet. They all think you're just the tough chick but you're more than that. You're the chick who knows how to throw down, how to stand by a principle, make a promise and swear blind to keep it and stick to it. Yet you know how to step back, be empathetic, how to love deeply and passionately." He trailed off. His tone was gentle, almost nostalgic. His brown eyes had a distant look in them like he'd just remembered something.

I felt myself sigh. What he said was beautiful. His words held that ring of truth where I knew I couldn't not believe him. He spoke with a deep rooted care for me but also with a fear he'd unnerve me.

"Thanks," I murmured in gratitude. He was giving me parts of myself back. Things I'd thought I'd lost long ago.

Slipping into the kitchen Brian was unpacking the necessary groceries we'd bought. Then he had to make tea for everyone. An odd ritual for this family but it seemed to their time together. It was the one moment in the day when they got ten minutes to just be. They ate dinner together but usually had phones ringing or texts beeping or some other interruption. This was their time to just be together.

"I've only two more beds to make, would someone give me a hand please!" Mia called from up the stairs.

"Yeh," I called back.

I tip toed up the stairs so I wouldn't wake Jack, the little angel of the family. Mia was stood in the airing cupboard smelling the sheets as she lifted them out. Probably making sure they weren't too fusty.

"They'll do for now," Mia murmured as she piled them over her shoulder and headed for one of the bedrooms.

One look inside told me this was Dom's room. The walls were cream, neutral. Grey curtains hung at the window. The bedspread was a plain one, block grey. It told you nothing about the character that was Dominic Torreto. Wasting no time Mia started stripping the bed. Hastening myself I started helping her, the old sheets were tossed into the far corner of the room.

We worked systematically in silence. Unsurprisingly Mia's side was neater than mines but what else was to be expected? She seemed well skilled in the art of making beds seeming to be the mother of this mismatched family.

"I'll get tore into the cleaning tomorrow. This place will be normal by tomorrow night."

"I could help if you like."

"Dom's going out to the garage tomorrow, I assumed you'd want to go out with him." Mia's eyes were shining. Her silent but obvious hope I'd remember was plain. Out of all of them, she was the one who pushed the least but it was most obvious she nursed the silent hope I'd remember.

I shrugged. I didn't care what I did tomorrow. In the back of my mind I had a niggling feeling that I needed to be alone. I wasn't used to so much constant company. People were always there, always chatting, laughing. It was surreal. Nothing like what I was used to at all.

We moved through to the smaller room next door. It had been vacant longer than Dom's room, that much was obvious. Despite its sparse decorations it did not lack in character. A black scuff mark was smeared on one cream wall. A mirror hung from the wall opposite the door. The smell of grease lingered in the room. The wardrobe door had stains from oil covered fingers. Everything about the room seemed to suggest the owner was restless. Nothing was organised. Drawers lay half opened and clothes spilled out of some. It looked like whoever had been in here last had raided the room in search of something.

"This was your room for years," Mia murmured gently as she started stripping the bed.

I nodded slowly. "I thought so," I trailed off. Something about the room was familiar.

"Yeh, this was your room from when you turned fourteen. You wouldn't move back to Mexico after your Mom died so Dad said you could live with us," Mia said with a grin. "This was your room until you turned eighteen..." She paused and mulled over her next words carefully. "Well I suppose it has always been your room. Some of your stuff never made it to Dom's room."

I chuckled it was typical. My lazy ass approach to a relationship. It was odd though. There seemed very little in here anyways. I probably left what I couldn't be bothered with here. It was probably my safety net, if things with Dom went wrong I still had this room. This room which I'd never relinquished my claim of.

We made the bed moving in almost perfect sync. The duvet on the bed was a deep purple colour with a faint design, faded from years of sunlight.

"You okay?" Mia asked as she tucked the sheets on her side.

"Yeh, you?" I asked.

"Course." Mia paused and motioned for me to pull up the duvet. I smoothed it out.

"I was thinking tomorrow night we should have a barbecue before Roman and Tej head off again," Mia chirped quite content.

"Yeh good idea. I'd like to get to know them better." My words sounded false. They were the words of a woman desperate for friends.

Mia grinned. "Dom loves a good barbecue, as does Brian. I'll need enough food for a small army." Her delighted giggle gave away her obvious delight at doing something for her family.

She led me back down the stairs and into the living room. Four mugs of tea lined the coffee table and Dom had settled into the armchair. Brian had taken up a cozy position on the sofa. Mia eagerly joined him and I sat awkwardly in the other arm chair.

No one said anything for a long moment, instead preferring to bask in each other's company and the widely felt relief at finally having a permanent place to call home. I busied myself taking in the details of a photograph hanging on the wall. It was of seven people. At the right was a guy with dark hair and tattoos up one arm. He stood with the swagger of a man who was arrogant. He had a half smirk on his face, as if amused by something that no one else was aware of. Dom was sat on the hood of the red Mazda wearing all white with the cross necklace he had given me in London. The necklace which had stirred a vague flicker of recognition in me. But why it was familiar I could not tell. His muscled arms were wrapped around my waist, claiming me like I was his property. I was sat on one of Dom's legs. My legs bare beneath my black leather skirt. I wore a bored expression on my face as though I had been waiting forever for the photograph to be taken. Brian sat next to Dom and looked fresh faced and innocent. Almost baby faced and in stark contrast the the rougher more ready looking men of the photo. Mia sat beside him looking the polar opposite to me. Her head inclined towards Brian showed her deep rooted care for him. She was sort of smiling. Between Brian and Mia another man's face was just visible. He too looked bored by the events. To the far right stood a blonde kid. A scrawny scrap of a man. He looked restless. There was something about him. Something I liked.

"Who's in that photo with us?" The words spilled from my lips before I could stop them.

Dom and Mia turned to looked at the photo. Dom stood up and lifted the frame from the wall and brought it over to me. His slow careful stride almost suggested to me I could ask him to stop if I wanted to.

He sat awkwardly on the arm of my chair and pointed to the guy with tattoos, "That's Vince. He was my best friend, we grew up together. We met in third grade. You met Vince the first time when you were about eight, just after you moved here. Then that guy between Mia and Brian is Leon. Then the blonde guy is Jesse. I met those guys at street races. They kind of moved in here not too long after."

I chuckled. Dom was almost like gravity. He just drew people in. From the moment I'd saw him in London he had stirred something in me. Something I could never remember another person touching. There was something about him. When I laid eyes on him, my stomach twisted and I'd wanted to talk to him. I felt almost loyal to this unknown man. This handsome guy. Then he'd said my name, "Letty," in an accent so similar to my own. The word had rolled off his tongue like a caress, an easy familiarity that I'd never heard my name used with before that I'd panicked. Without thinking I raised the gun I was holding and shot at him, without aiming. I shot him because I was scared at the feelings he stirred in me. He made me feel more alive than anyone else ever had and it scared me. He stumbled back and I scrambled back into my car and like a coward I ran from him because I was scared of the strength of the emotions he made me feel.

"Sounds like life was always interesting here."

Mia nodded. "Never a dull moment, always something happening."

Brian thought. "My favourite moment in this house has to be the night I met Dom. Dom and I pretty much hiked the whole way back here until we managed to catch a cab. When we got back Dom took Vince's beer and gave it to me."

"That was the start of it all," Mia says with a sigh. She glanced affectionately at Brian but there was a touch of regret in her eyes like it all should have been simpler. While I know she wouldn't trade what she has now for the world, she craves the security she once had.

"Yeh the buster was officially initiated into the team." Dom's gravelly baritone growled in the silence of the room.

I smiled. "How did I come to be part of the team?"

Dom pondered for a second. "You moved here when you were eight and quickly became Mia's best friend. Then when you turned ten you developed a serious obsession with cars. By the time you were fourteen you were a regular fixture in my Father's garage, working beneath the hood of cars, mapping out the inside of the engine so you knew it well. Your skills got better every day. You turned fifteen showed up at your first street race and I fell for you that night. After that night when you pulled me out of the wreckage of that car. There was no doubt in my mind I needed someone like you in my life permanently. After that night you were part of the team officially but without you the team was nothing anyways."

Mia giggled. "The team was nothing but you and Vince thinking that you were cool."

Dom rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"The team was just Vince and Dom mucking about in the garage, racing every Saturday. Then when Letty became an official part of it it became more about loyalty," Mia explained.

Dom nodded in assent.

I was intrigued. They spoke so highly of everyone they loved. It was awe inspiring. I loved being immersed in this family ethic. After eighteen months of practically being alone in the world it was amazing to know there would be someone there for me even if things went awry.

My tea was starting to go cold so I started gulping it back inelegantly. In a way I wanted to leave them alone. I wasn't used to having people around so it made me wary to be around anyone for too long and they were a proper unit. They'd stand united now and forever in a way I never could with them unless I remembered.

"I think I'm going to hit the sack," I said as I stretched. I was feigning being more tired that I actually was.

Dom nodded as did Brian. Mia smiled.

"It was a long trip," Mia murmured gently.

I left first, leaving my cup with Dom. I trudged up the stairs to what was once my room. Kicking off my boots. I peeled off my jeans I left them on the floor along with tank top. I slid into the bed. It was warm, softer than the bed I'd slept in for the last year. The pillows were feather and so soft I couldn't help but sink into them.

Sleep did not come easy. I heard every creak as everyone headed up to bed. First was Mia, her feet feather light on the stairs and sighing as she opened her bedroom door with a soft creak. Brian followed about ten minutes later, his footsteps slightly heavier on the wooden stairs. Lastly Dom made his way up the stairs, I could hear his heavy footsteps. They were even as they hit each step and he paused outside my door. He murmured goodnight but I pretended to be asleep in case he'd come in and try to talk to me one on one. The most extended conversation we'd had was when I'd asked Dom how he'd known there would be a car there to break our fall and he'd replied I didn't. Some things you just have to take on faith. Beyond that we'd exchanged few words without Brian or Mia or someone else able to chip in as part of the conversation.

After that I lay for hours in the darkness waiting for sleep to overwhelm me. Unfortunately it did not come for another few hours.