Disclaimer - as usual I don't own anything you may recognise from the film, TFATF, those characters/situations/lines are the sole property of Universal Pictures and I've simply borrowed them for my own amusement. Anything you don't recognise from the film is mine, please don't take my ideas/characters without my express permission - if you ask, I may well let you borrow them but please respect the time and effort that I've put into creating and writing the original aspects of this story.

A/N - This is a rewrite of a story I first wrote at the beginning of 2005. I loved the original version but always felt something was missing from it. Hopefully this version will be just as well receieved as the original, let me know what you think.

I'd like to dedicate this story to the one person that's kept me going through this year and the only person who truely knows me - couldn't have done it without you baby and I'll be forever in your debt.

Chapter 1

"Chloe, Chloe are you there? Please, pick up. She's not there Dom, what shall I do?"

Chloe could barely make out Dom's response but as Mia then added to the message she figured that he must have told her to go ahead and leave a message.

"V and Jesse are in the hospital Chloe, it's all gone wrong. I need you to look after V and Jesse for me, the rest of us are heading to Mexico. Don't talk to the police and don't tell anyone where we are. I'll call you soon. Dom says the spare keys are under the grill in the back yard."

Chloe sat on her leather couch and pressed play on her answer machine to listen to the message for the forth time. She'd come home from a day studying in the library and couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. Mia sounded absolutely frantic and she could hear Dom shouting at her to hurry up. Based on what Mia had said and the traffic noise in the background she was calling from a roadside phone somewhere between LA and the Mexican border.

She'd not spoken to Mia for a few weeks, the younger girl hadn't been into classes since the time she pulled Chloe aside and told her about Harry's new delivery guy who kept eating her tuna sandwiches. She was totally taken with the guy and had been skipping classes to spend time with him.

15 minutes later Chloe was showered, changed and on her way to the house to try and find something that would tell her what Vince's last name was. She knew that Jesse was Jesse Andrews; he'd done some work on her car for her a few months earlier in return for her helping him with some insurance forms. The poor boy hadn't wanted Dom to know that he was back on Ritalin and Chloe had sorted out his insurance for him. Dom had always thought that Jesses ADHD was controlled purely by his love of engines but Chloe knew better – Jesse had gone back on Ritalin 2 months after she'd first met him and he'd have been back on it sooner if he hadn't been so worried what Dom would think of him.

It was almost dark when Chloe pulled up in front of the house but she could still see the bullet holes in Jesse's Jetta and the huge blood stain across the sidewalk. She'd never been on a drive along with the paramedics but she knew that a blood stain that large wasn't good. It looked as if someone had practically bled out on the sidewalk.

Ducking under the yellow crime scene tape Chloe headed down the drive to the backyard. Mia had said there were spare keys under the grill so she headed there first, desperately hoping that the police hadn't already found them. Without the keys she'd have no way of getting into the house and finding out Vince's surname. She knew that it would be hard enough getting information on Vince and Jesse even with their full names but without V's surname she didn't stand a chance. The way that Mia had said not to talk to the police had made it perfectly obvious that whatever the boys had been up to when they'd been hurt had been less than legal and Chloe just knew that she'd have to answer a whole barrage of questions before she could talk to them. All she could do was cross her fingers and hope that she could find everything she needed in the house to provide her with the answers to the police's questions.

As Chloe walked through the house she couldn't tell if they'd been burgled, searched by an over enthusiastic police team or just left in a hurry. The kitchen had been practically ripped apart; every single drawer had been pulled out and emptied on the table as if someone had been looking for something, the dresser where Chloe knew Mia kept important paperwork was empty and Mia's green leather bound phone book was no where in sight.

The family room wasn't much better, the shelves had been cleared of all photographs and there was nothing left to say that the occupants were planning on coming back. Everything personal had been removed from the room leaving just an empty shell. The normally lively house was just an empty shell and Chloe couldn't wait to get out of there. It was quite honestly giving her the creeps – she'd only been to the house a couple of times, once with Jesse when he'd gone to get something and once with Mia when she was picking her up for a late study group, but the house had always been loud and bursting with people.

Calling out a nervous 'hello' Chloe carefully made her way down the stairs to the basement. Jesse had often complained about Vince and Leon keeping him awake at night when they had company so she knew that she'd be able to find something with V's surname on downstairs. As she tripped on the stairs for the third time Chloe cursed Mia for getting her involved in this, they weren't exactly close and if it wasn't for the fact that it was Jesse and V that were hurt she wouldn't have got involved. Well, no, that was a lie, she'd have gotten involved no matter who was hurt, even if it had been Dominic as that was the sort of girl she was but she wouldn't have broken into a crime scene and searched an empty house with only the light on her cell phone for anyone less than Jesse and V.

After she'd joined the team at the beach she and Jesse had become very close friends, he'd work on her car for her and she'd help him with his medication and make sure he was eating properly. She'd even managed to involve him in the game of pop rocks tag that she and V had started playing. It had all been started by the packet of pop rocks she'd slipped into V's pocket at the beach and ever since then her and V had been sending each other packets of the sugar candy at least once a month. It hadn't taken V long to realise that Jesse was still in contact with Chloe and one day he'd simply handed the young man a paper bag and told him to make sure to give them to her. Chloe had been really touched by the gesture and the next time she'd been in the supermarket had bought another packet for V. After a couple of months she'd gotten bored of simply asking Jesse to give them to V and had started coming up with weird and wonderful places for Jesse to leave them. By far the best yet had been in V's car when he'd gone to get another tattoo. He'd not told anyone on the team where he was going but when he'd come back to his car there was a packet of raspberry pop rocks waiting on his seat for him.

He never did find out how Jesse had known where to find him or how he'd gotten into his car but he hadn't really cared. He'd not seen Chloe since the day at the beach and had only spoken to her on the phone once but he still counted her as a friend, someone he could rely on if he ever needed her and unbeknownst to him – Chloe felt exactly the same about him.

The first room Chloe found was obviously Jesse's – the pile of computer magazines and disks kind of gave it away, that and the dark green silk shirt that was hanging up on the wardrobe door. It had been Jesse's birthday a few months previously and Chloe had brought him the shirt for his birthday. He'd looked so handsome in it when she'd taken him out for a meal and she just hoped that she'd get to see him in it again. Despite the huge blood stain on the sidewalk and every medical instinct telling her how unlikely that was she couldn't let go of her hope – Jesse was the sweetest person she knew and he deserved so much more than dying on the sidewalk. As wrong as it was Chloe couldn't help hoping that it wasn't Jesse's blood on the sidewalk, that someone else had been caught up in the gunfire, but that still didn't explain what had happened to Jesse or whose blood it was. Mia had only mentioned that Jesse and V were hurt, she hadn't said how or if anyone one else was involved.

V's room was exactly as she'd expected – a huge bed in the middle of the room and piles of washing on the floor. She'd yet to meet a man who understood the simple concept of 'putting your clothes away' and Mia had often told her that she refused to go down into the basement for fear of what or rather who she might come across. It seemed that neither Le nor Vince were particularly shy about who they brought home and the last thing Mia wanted to face on a Sunday morning was a half dressed girl being given the brush off. The only thing even vaguely resembling tidy in V's room was his bedside cabinets – the piles of paperwork and sheet music offered Chloe some hope. She really didn't want to have to start going through drawers to find something with V's surname on, but she would if she had to. She had some latex gloves in the car so if push came to shove and she needed to go through anything too personal she was covered, the only thing she refused to go through was the waste paper bin. There wasn't enough money in the world to convince her to go through a single mans rubbish bin – just the mere thought of it made her stomach turn.

Luckily Chloe found what she was looking for halfway through the first pile of papers – a credit card statement in the name of Vincent Richards. As long as the hospital didn't insist that she fill out any paperwork for Vince she was covered, she knew his name but that was about it and she simply didn't have the time to search the house for a birth certificate or drivers licence for his date of birth. She'd just have to wing it and hope for the best. Thankful that she'd found enough to at least get information on Vince, Chloe quickly put the papers back on their original pile and went to leave the room. She'd barely gotten 3 steps across the room when she caught sight of something tucked into the side of V's mirror. Her heart was practically pounding in her ears as she crossed the room to get a closer look, it couldn't possibly be what she thought it was but as she got closer she realised that it was. It was a photo of the two of them, taken when she'd joined the team for a BBQ at the beach. Letty had been messing about with a camera and taking pictures of everyone but Chloe didn't remember this one being taken. It was of her and Vince standing at the waters edge, the surf just licking their toes and Vince had his head thrown back roaring with laughter. Chloe could almost hear him and she shivered as she felt that same tingle run down her spine as she had when they'd been at the beach. They'd been talking about Le's lack of tan lines and V had been telling her about the time that Letty caught Leon with her cousin in the office at the store. The way he'd described it had made it seem like something from a slapstick comedy and both of them had been crying with laughter by the time he'd gotten to the end of his tale.

Chloe gently ran her fingers over V's face as she tried once again to hold back the tears, only this time it wasn't tears of laughter and happiness. Ever since Mia's phone call Chloe had been filled with dread about what she'd find when she went to the hospital and seeing the huge blood stain on the sidewalk outside the house hadn't eased her fears at all, if anything it'd made them worse. 12 pints of blood, that's how much the average male had coursing through his veins and it looked as if at least half of that was soaked into the sidewalk. Either Jesse or Vince, or quite possibly both of them was seriously if not fatally injured and she was all they had left. The rest of the team had abandoned them and it was up to her to look after them, that's what Mia had said "Look after V and Jesse for me", so that's what she was going to do – look after the V and Jesse. Only she'd be doing it for them, not for Mia.

Chloe didn't have a clue where to go once she got to the hospital; she had no idea as to the nature of their injuries, only that they were serious. Figuring the ER was the best place to start Chloe said a quick prayer and headed to the Admissions desk. As usual the ER was heaving with patients and it was some time before Chloe got to the front of the queue.

"Hi, I'm looking for Vincent Richards and Jesse Andrews – I understand they were brought in earlier today."

The look on the clerk's face changed instantly from harassed to sympathetic and Chloe knew in that instant that one if not both of the boys were dead. She'd seen that look far too many times since she'd been in medicine and it never failed to make her feel sick. Just knowing that someone she cared for was lying on a slab in the mortuary made her blood run cold.

"I'm sorry, I can only give patient information out to family – are you related to either of the young men in anyway?"

"Vince and I are getting married next year and Jesse's his housemate. We're not blood related but I guess I'm all they've got." At that point Chloe would have claimed to have been their mother if it meant that she could find out what had happened to them. She knew all to well hospital policy on giving out patient information but with the team gone she really was all they had, in LA at any rate.

It took nearly 20 minutes for the admin clerk to find the doctor that had dealt with the boys when they'd been admitted and another 5 minutes to discover that Jesse was DOA and Vince was still in recovery after going through 4 hours of surgery. Chloe still didn't really know what had happened but somehow Jesse had ended up with multiple gunshot wounds and Vince had serious lacerations to his right arm and a shotgun wound to his left side. Chloe had known by looking at the Jetta that whatever had happened had been extremely violent but she was still shocked to hear the full extent of their injuries. Jesse had been shot 6 times and according to the doctor put up one hell of a fight but in the end his blood loss was simply too much. He'd been alone when the paramedics arrived at the house; the team had left him, left him to die on the sidewalk alone. He'd hung on long enough to ask the paramedics to tell Le that he was sorry before it'd all become too much for him. Nothing the paramedics had been able to do had been enough to bring him back and Jesse Alexander Andrews had died all alone, just months after his 21st birthday.

It took Chloe another 2 hours to get past the police officer guarding Vince's door. To start with she'd been told that V wasn't allowed visitors and it had taken Chloe some 30 minutes to convince him that she was perfectly entitled to see him as she was his fiancée and needed to see that he was ok. In the end some well timed tears had been all it took to get the police officer to contact his superiors and get permission for Chloe to enter V's room. Apparently Chloe reminded the officer of his own daughter and he couldn't bear to see her cry, even if the injured man she was trying to see wasn't worth her tears.

Chloe was starting to get desperate by the time Sgt Tanner arrived; she'd been assured by the officer guarding V's room that she'd be allowed in but that Sgt Tanner had some questions for her first. Chloe knew that someone needed to tell Vince about Jesse and she wanted to be that person. Well, no, that wasn't quite right – being the one to tell V that their friend was dead was the last thing she wanted but she couldn't let a stranger tell him. She'd been lucky enough to be able to count Jesse as a friend and she wasn't going to let a total stranger, someone who'd never even met the young man, tell Vince that he was dead.

To start with the questions had been pretty basic, who was she? What was her relationship with Vincent Richards? Where was Dominic Toretto? Did she know how Vince and Jesse came to get hurt? But then came the killer question, the one she hadn't been expecting – What did she know about the truck heists? As soon as Sgt Tanner mentioned the truck heists Chloe knew why Mia and the rest of the team had run to Mexico. Mia had said "don't talk to the police" and now Chloe knew why. Chloe knew that the team didn't exactly stick to the law, the street racing told her that much but she had no idea that they were behind the spate of hijackings that had covered the papers for the past few months.

"My name's Chloe Armstrong, Vince and I are getting married next year. I had a phone call from Mia Toretto telling me that the boys had been hurt and that they were here. That was all I knew until I got here and spoke to one of the doctors." Chloe still couldn't quite believe the way her day had turned out, it'd all started off so peacefully with a leisurely breakfast and a trip to the library and it was ending with her loosing a friend and lying to a police officer.

"I don't know where Dominic is and to be honest with you, I don't really expect to hear from him – we're not exactly what you'd call friends. You don't seriously think my Vince had anything to do with those truck heists do you? I know he's not a candidate for 'good citizen of the year' but even he's not that stupid. I'd leave him if he ever did anything that stupid and he knows it."

It took some convincing but eventually Sgt Tanner agreed to let Chloe in to see Vince, the only problem was – Chloe wasn't sure she actually wanted to see him. How the hell was she supposed to tell him that the rest of the team had run, Jesse was dead and she was all he had left? Not to mention that fact that they were now engaged to be married and she'd lied her ass off to the police for him.

She'd pretty much decided to wait until the doctor and nurses came out of V's room before she went in when she heard the most pain filled roar she'd ever heard in her entire life. She'd never heard anything like it, not even when she'd been working in the trauma centres in London had she ever heard anyone in so much pain and she was through the door and by V's bedside before Sgt Tanner had time to blink.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Get away from him." Chloe kicked the nurse nearest to her and pushed her out of the way so that she could get to Vince. The poor bastard was not only in soft restraints but was being held down by two of the biggest orderlies she'd ever seen whilst a weasel faced doctor prodded and poked at the dressings on V's arm.

"I said – what the hell do you think you're doing?" Chloe was furious, Vince was obviously in agony and from what she could tell the nurses weren't doing anything to help him or ease his discomfort. Not that the doctor was any better, sure Chloe hadn't been in medicine that long but even she knew that inflicting pain on your patient wasn't something you were supposed to do as a doctor.

"Miss, this really isn't a good time, I suggest you come back later. Why don't you wait outside until we're finished here and once we've got Mr Richards settled you can come back in?"

"Do you really think that I'm going to leave my fiancé alone with the likes of you? My god, you're a doctor – you're supposed to heal not cause more pain."

Chloe's whole demeanour changed when she saw the tears pooling in V's eyes and rapidly spilling over to fall down his cheeks. V was a proud man who didn't show his emotions so for him to be crying like that was simply heartbreaking. She couldn't begin to imagine how much pain he must have been in and she knew then that she couldn't leave him, no matter what happened between them she'd stay with him whilst he was in the hospital.

"It's alright baby, I'm here – I won't let them hurt you anymore."

When V heard Chloe's voice he fought back through the pain to try and see who it was that was gently wiping away his tears and calling him baby. It sounded like Chloe and it smelt like Chloe, but it couldn't have been her. He'd only met her the once and there was no way that she'd be there with him, it simply wasn't possible, but when his eye's finally focused on her face he saw that it was possible. Chloe was there, holding his hand and gently stroking his cheek. Turning his head to kiss her fingers, he managed a brief smile before the doctor once again prodded his arm sending shooting pains from his wrist right up to his shoulder.

"Right that's enough, get out and leave him alone." Chloe was furious, despite all the painkilling drugs that the doctor had available he was insisting on examining V's arm without even giving him entanox. Just looking at the smarmy, condescending little man was making her knuckles itch and she longed to punch him right in his weasely little face. Not that that would do much good, in fact with the police officers still guarding V's door it'd probably get her arrested but it would certainly be worth it just to wipe the smile of his face.

"Miss, we need to get this wound redressed and your fiancé isn't being very cooperative. I can assure you that this all looks a lot worse than it actually is."

"It's Dr actually, not Miss and I can assure you Dr Matthews, that if you don't step away from my fiancé right this instance that you'll have a malpractice suit slapped on your ass so damn fast it'll make your head spin. Now get the fuck away from him and leave us alone. I'll sort his arm out and you can be sure I'll be speaking to the hospital board about this. By the time I'm finished with you, you'll be lucky if you're even allowed in a hospital never mind get to work in one."

By now Vince was in agony, the pain shooting up his arm was horrendous and he was trying his best to stay conscious but he could tell he was fighting a loosing battle. He could still just about feel Chloe's cool hand gently stroking his face but her voice was echoey and distant.

"Just let it go baby, I'll take care of you." Chloe knew that what she had to do for V would be intensely painful, the wound on his arm was already seeping through the bandages and as cruel as it sounded she wanted the big man to pass out. At least that way she'd be able to do the majority of the clean up without putting him through anymore pain. Plus it'd give her more time to think of how she was going to tell him about Jesse and the rest of the team.

Chloe was just putting away the tape and throwing the rubbish in the bin when V's eye's started to flutter and he slowly came to. This was the moment that she'd been dreading for the past few hours, ever since she'd found out about Jesse and she didn't have a clue where to begin.

Sitting in the chair next to Vince, Chloe reached out to gently take hold of his good hand, she had to be careful as he had his drip in that wrist but she needed to be touching him when she told him that his friend was dead and his other friends had run and left him.

"Where are they Chloe? Where's Dom and Mia?" It wasn't that V wasn't grateful that Chloe was there or even that he didn't want to see her but he needed to know that Dom and Mia had gotten away ok. Dom was his best friend and Mia, well he loved Mia, and he needed to know that they'd both escaped from the police after the helicopter had taken him away.

"Mexico Vince, they're heading to Mexico. Mia called me from a phone booth somewhere between here and the border and told me where they were headed; they've got Letty and Leon with them as well."

"Something went wrong V, I don't have all the details yet but Jesse was killed in a drive by shooting at the house, the police said something about motorbikes and the Trans but I didn't catch it all." Chloe's heart damn near broke when she saw the tears once again pooling in V's eyes, the last thing in the world she wanted to do was hurt him more but she knew that she had to tell him everything she knew.

"The doctor I spoke to said that Jesse put up a good fight but he'd lost too much blood by the time the paramedics got there. She left him V, Mia called for an ambulance and left him. If she'd stayed with him and kept the pressure on his wounds then he'd have stood a chance but she left him to die. How could she do that?"

It wasn't long before Chloe was crying along with Vince, crying for the sweet innocent young man who'd lost his life because Mia Toretto had, for some unknown reason, left him bleeding and dying on the sidewalk. The same Mia Toretto who wanted to be a doctor had run at the first sign of trouble and had left her friend, a boy who was practically her baby brother, dying and alone. Chloe knew that she'd never forgive Mia as long as she lived and she just hoped that one day she'd get the chance to tell her just what she thought of her.

Chloe hadn't known Jesse all that long, only a few months, but she'd fallen in love with him the first day that she'd met him. There was nothing sexual about their relationship but he was the kindest, sweetest guy she knew and he was a total breath of fresh air for her at a time when her life was at an all time low. She'd first met him 4 months after her parents had been killed and she'd been on the verge of packing up and leaving LA, heading back to London when Mia had invited her to join the team at the beach for a BBQ. She'd had such a great time and Jesse had made such an impact on her that she'd decided to stay in LA and give it just one more chance, now that she didn't have Jesse she didn't know whether she'd stay in LA or head on home but she had plenty of time to make that decision.

For now, her place was in LA with the tearstained, scruffy, tattooed mechanic that was softly snoring in the hospital bed next to her. She had no idea what tomorrow would bring, but she hoped and prayed that things would look a little clearer, a little brighter maybe in the morning.