Brian O'Connor stared at the house in silence. The rain was falling in sheets but he didn't pay it any attention. It looked almost the same as it always had. High performance vehicles parked in the driveway and up and down the block, people moving around inside. Brian couldn't help but think about the last time he'd been there. Ten months ago. The day Jesse had been shot. Tanner had told him that Jesse had pulled through surgery. Looked like the kid would recover. Eventually.

The day he'd let Dominic go had been the defining point in his life. Cleaning up the cars and truck hadn't been a problem. The racing community had seen to that. All Brian had to do was make a few phone calls. It seemed Team Toretto had quite a few friends. Funny how simple those calls had been once he'd handed over the keys to the Supra. Breaking the law had never been easier.

When questioned about Vince's wounds he told them that some of Trans people had done it. Brian had told Tanner and Bilkins that the Trans had tied Vince up with wire and dragged him. Then shot him. With Johnny and Lance having already shot Jesse, it wasn't a hard leap to believe. Agent Bilkins had railed at him, telling him he knew Brian was covering for Toretto, but Brian had never backed down. He never changed his story. Tanner had looked at him, but had accepted his explanations. Bilkins had threatened Brian with legal action. And finally he'd just stopped talking. Tanner hadn't been surprised when Brian turned in his resignation. He'd given up his shield. Given up his career.

Brian had spent the last ten months back in Arizona. He's worked at his friend's garage. At first he'd spent a lot of time drinking, but had found he just didn't have a taste for it. It had been a hard decision to come back. He hadn't come back to them though. Brian didn't kid himself. No one in that house would want to see him.
Vince stared out the window at the rain and thought he saw a ghost. In the background he could hear everyone but it seemed muted. Leon was laughing at something Letty was saying. Dom was showering after a long day in the garage, and Jesse was down taking a nap. He still got tired real easy. Vince wiped the fog away from the window and took a closer look at the man just standing across the street. "Well I'll be fucked." he murmured. It was the Buster. He had a few things he wanted to say to the Buster.

He went out the back door somehow suspecting if he confronted him face to face the other man would hightail it out of there. It wasn't hard to sneak up on the other man. He appeared to be lost in thought. "Took a lot of guts to show up here Brian." Vince said from behind him.

Brian spun around startled. "I was just leaving." he said abruptly. Vince could see that Brian had lost weight, and his eyes were shadowed.

"You don't wanna go in and see everyone?" Vince looked at him hard, and saw Brian flinch.

"No. No, I don't want to see anyone." Brian moved past him as if to walk away.

"I knew you were a cop. Right from the beginning." Vince said conversationally and Brian stopped walking.

"Good instincts."

"You saved my life Brian. We weren't friends. If anything I was a dick to you. Not that you didn't deserve it seeing as you were lying to my family, but you saved me anyway."

"Couldn't let you die."

"No, I guess you couldn't. But the other stuff you did. Getting the cars cleaned up, finding a way to explain my injuries, killing the Trans, letting Dom go…those were things you didn't have to do."

"It was the right thing to do. It was the only thing to do."

"Shit boy, you gave up your career for a bunch of criminals."

"No…I didn't. I gave it up for my family."

"Vince?" Letty had come out onto the porch and was calling out. "Holy shit! Brian?"

"Glad you're okay Vince." Brian murmured and he hurried away.

Vince stood looking after him as he got into a blue Nissan and pulled away. Dom had run up after Letty had screamed Brian's name. "Was it really O'Connor?"

"Yes it was." Vince murmured. "We were right. He was the one who arranged to gets the cars cleaned up. Don't know why Hector'd never tell us though."

"Didn't want to admit to working with a cop."

"Not a cop no more."

"Still hard to believe he turned his badge in."
When Mia called that evening Dom told her of Vince seeing Brian.

"Christ Dom, you didn't let Vince get to him did you? He did save V's life, and all your asses."

"Vince didn't hurt him Mia. They just talked. He didn't come up to the house."

"How'd he look?" she asked softly.

"V says he looked tired, and he'd lost weight."

"Well, he didn't have much of that to lose." she sighed.

"He told V that he'd done it all for his family. Said we were his family." Dom rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"You should've known that Dom. Maybe he started out lying, but in the end he wasn't." Mia got quiet. "He probably needs you guys Dom. Just like you need him."

"How about you? You over him?"

"Yeah. Yeah I am. It took a while. But I think coming to school here helped. I fell for him hard, he's a good man, but I've moved past it now." He could hear her smiling. "How are you and Letty?"

"The same as it has been for three months now. It's over. We tried, but we could never pull it back. Now we're working at being friends. Who knows, maybe it's better this way. Sure is a lot less stressful."

"I'll bet. Keep your head up Dom. I'd better go. I have a test tomorrow."

"Love you Mia."

"Love you too big brother."
Brian felt like an idiot. He hadn't been paying close enough attention and Vince had seen him. Letty had seen him. He should never have come back. What made him think he could live here and not see them? Who was he trying to kid? He'd known that eventually they'd run into each other. The circles they all traveled in it would be impossible not to. Great. Now he was a masochist.

He spent the night tossing and turning, and finally gave up in the attempt to get some sleep. Brian showered, shaved, and got ready for work. He'd gotten the job with Thorne's salvage before he'd ever come back. He drove the tow truck, did pick-ups, and did deliveries. It was a no brainer as far as jobs went, but it was a job none the less.

Jack Thorne, the owner of the salvage yard, and Brian's boss, was already there by the time Brian pulled into the employee parking area. He made his way into the main office to get the list of items he'd be taking care of that day. So far Jack had only listed three pick-ups, and then those three had to be delivered to….Brian blinked at the address. It didn't look right. At first his heart almost stopped thinking it was DT's, but it wasn't. It was the building across from DT's. Like that wasn't bad enough. Brian frowned. He hadn't known anyone had rented, or bought that building. He wondered when that had happened. He wondered how pissed Dom was that someone had moved in so close to his territory.

Brian sighed, pulled on his ball cap, and headed for the truck. No sense in putting it off. He had a job to do. The three pick-ups all turned out to be bikes. Motorcycles. Mangled, rusty motorcycles. He was able to get them all onto the trailer of the tow truck for one trip. Now he just had to drop them off.
Leon had watched the trucks delivering to the large warehouse next door for the past week. He was curious as to who had rented, and what they were gonna be doin over there. After Dom had snapped at him twice he'd finally turned his attention back to the engine of the Civic in front of him. Dom wasn't pleased about the new neighbors. Thought it might be another garage which would mean competition.

The sounds of revving engines and bike motors got all of their attentions. Dom was the first to make it to the door, but Leon and Letty weren't far behind. There was a bright orange soft top Spitfire, a silvery violet Civic with paw prints scattered liberally in what was either black or deep purple, and three Harley's.

From where they stood they had a good view of the goings on. The first woman off one of the bikes gave a startling laugh as she removed her helmet. Platinum blonde hair spiked crazily all over her head, and her athletic body was encased in leather pants and a black wife-beater. Her entire left arm was sleeved out in tattoos, and there appeared to be a few on her right arm as well. "Welcome home kiddos!"

A man got out of the Spitfire and slung his arm around the girl's shoulders. "This is it?" His voice was loud, a tinge cocky, and had some sort of English, or Australian accent. "She picked this dump?"

Another man, shorter than the first, dismounted his bike and removed his helmet. His back was to DT's but they could see his dark brown shoulder-length hair. "Maybe it's nicer inside?"

The third Harley rider removed her helmet. She was the same height as the first woman, and her hair was a short, spiky auburn. She too was riddled with tattoos. "It's not a flipping hotel so piss off. B always knows what she's doin'." The woman said acidly to the cocky man.

A third woman came bounding out of the Civic with a squeal. She could hardly stand still. She was short, real short, possibly not even five feet tall. She had dark brown hair and it was pulled into a ponytail. The girl was wearing a tube top and a pair of cut off denim shorts. She looked real young.

Letty, Leon, and Dom just stared at the newcomers as they looked at the building, some in horror, and some with enthusiasm.

The bouncing girl was practically spinning in circles. She caught sight of the members of Team Toretto and her eyes widened. "Oh, look, natives." The girl smiled brightly and headed over to the team. "Hi!" When she got to them they could tell she wasn't the teenager they'd thought she was.

"Dom Toretto." Dom said extending his hand.

"You can call me Mouse." She grinned. "Toretto, Toretto; oh, Team Toretto, king of the streets, royalty of street racing. Nice to meet ya!"

"This is Letty, and Leon."

"A pleasure." The pretty girl shook both of their hands. A small ruby piercing winked on the side of her cute little nose. Her friends had started to wander over as well. "These are my compatriots. Spades," She motioned to the girl with platinum hair. Spades had tattoos of the Ace of Spades on both biceps. "Frannie." This was the red head. "Scottie, and Joshua."

"What are you all gonna be doin over there?" Leon was curious.

"Garage." Frannie said smacking her gum. She looked very young, and seemed to have a permanent sneer on her face.

"For bikes mainly." The girl, Spades, added leisurely. "Don't do too many cars. We can, and we work on our own, but we tend to stick with bikes." She smiled and gave Dom the once over. "What do you guys… handle?"

"Little bit of this and that." Letty spoke up. "Don't do bikes though."

"Well now, won't that be a perfect fit for you darlings." The foreign man, Scottie, said and put his arm around the blonde's shoulders a bit possessively. Scottie was built big, but stood just shorter than Dom.

"Might work." Dom said folding his arms over his chest. "Where'd you all come from?"

"Detroit." This came from Josh. "Mouse and I are originally from Chicago, but most recently we all came from Detroit." It was easy to see that he and the girl, Mouse, were related.

The sound of an engine gunning made its way down the street. "Looks like Sarge's here." Scottie said a bit sarcastically. Spades shrugged off his arm.

"Not funny." She said and started walking to the silver Sunfire that had pulled up behind the Civic.

"What?" Scottie exclaimed as the others threw him dirty looks and also walked away. He gave the three strangers a grin. "Can I help it she runs it like she's their drill sergeant? Suppose I'd better get over there before I have to sleep on the couch." He muttered and headed over to join his group.

Both car doors opened simultaneously. A blonde got out the passenger side, and a brunette got out the driver side. The girl, Mouse, was already talking to the brunette, and she turned to glance at them. She moved confidently, with innate grace. Her hair was chopped bluntly to her shoulders framing a face set with amber eyes, an aquiline nose, and a generous mouth. A small tattoo of a spider appeared at the corner of her right eye. Her friend and passenger had extremely long strawberry blonde hair pulled back in a braid. She had brown eyes and was slightly shorter than the tall brunette.

"I can honestly say I didn't know we'd be in such good company when I picked this spot." the brunette spoke in a husky voice. "The Dominic Toretto."

"In the flesh." he told her and raised an eyebrow.

"You're the stuff of stories and legends around here. Every auto parts store I've talked to worships the ground you walk on."

"I bring in a lot of business."

"I'll bet." she smiled and it was slightly off center. "I'm Brinley Reece, most people just call me B. This is Nomi." The blonde nodded. "We won't take up any more of your time."

"Hey B." Dom called out as she walked away. When she glanced back over her shoulder he grinned. "Welcome to the neighborhood."