Alex woke up surprised at her feeling of alertness. She'd heard someone once say they felt 'refreshed' Alex had no idea what that meant at the time, but now as she stretched her arms up over her head she was beginning to understand. She heard noises coming from downstairs and for once was excited to see what the day held. She crawled out of the bed and opened the door and nearly ran into Vince who was coming out of the bathroom. Vince smirked down at her eyeing Dom's shirt.

"Sleep well?" Alex still wasn't sure if she liked Vince, and with the look he was giving her it made her take a step back.

"Yes, Sir." She answered timidly, head down making sure not to make eye contact. He shook his head as he stepped closer to her.

"What are you doing here?" Alex took a step back but ran into the door frame. The question ran around and around her mind. What am I doing here? Alex really didn't know. "Well?" He wasn't going to leave without an answer.

"Dom and Mia invited me." She answered meekly.

"Well make sure you don't over stay your welcome." Vince warned. Alex nodded her head vigorously. She was still looking down at the ground so she didn't see that Dom stepped out of his room.

"There a problem here?" Alex looked up at Dom only to look back down again.

"No problem, right Alex?" Vince smiled. Alex nodded in agreement. "We were just getting to know each other a little better." He reached out to ruffle her hair as Dom had done before but Alex jumped back from him and Dom let out a light growl. Vince looked at his friend questioningly before putting his hands up and going back down stairs.

"You okay?" Dom asked stepping closer to her. She nodded her head again but wouldn't look at him. Dom sighed thinking about how many steps back she'd taken. "Come on, Mia said she put some clothes out for you." He guided her down the hall but made sure not to touch her. Mia's room was open and a pair of jeans and a t-shirt was laid out on the bed for her.

"Um, I'll be right back." Alex shot out of the room before he could say anything and was back again but this time was wearing her thick black bracelets again on each arm. It was then Dom realized she used the bracelets to cover her scars.

Alex smiled as she picked up the clothes. "Oh no!" She exclaimed looking at the jeans.

"What's wrong?" Dom asked after he couldn't see anything wrong with them.

"Mia has holes in her jeans. I can fix them, I know how." Dom smiled at Alex's eagerness to help.

"Well, that's actually how they're supposed to be." Dom tried explaining.

"Why?" Dom laughed at her completely confused expression. "I'm serious, why would you pay money for clothes already ripped?" That just made Dom laugh harder.

"Do I look like a fashion expert?" Alex ran her eyes down Dom's body and while his wife beater and jeans wouldn't be in Paris fashion week, he could certainly be a model. Dom smirked at her look but decided he wouldn't say anything about it, she seemed to have shaken off her encounter with Vince and didn't need her taking any more steps backwards.

"Breakfast's ready!" Mia called from downstairs. There was a large commotion that sounded like a stampede but Dom didn't say anything so Alex figured it was normal.

"Come eat once you're done getting changed." Alex nodded as Dom closed the door behind him to give her some privacy. He didn't need a repeat of last night, especially if Vince was still around. What is it with him anyways? Dom thought. Sure the girl stole his sandwich but he seemed to think having her here was a bad idea. Ever since the Brian episode he tended to trust Vince's instincts more, but he just couldn't wrap his head around what could make him so opposed to them helping her.

"Morning bro." Mia smiled kissing him on the cheek. Dom chuckled, she must have been in a good mood she'd made enough food to feed an army. "What? I didn't know what she'd like." Mia said defensively as Dom looked around at the French toast, pancakes, hash browns, eggs, sausage, bacon, coffee, hot chocolate, and tea.

Alex came down the stairs and stopped as the smells hit her all at once. "Mmmhhh, Mia it smells so good." Mia excitedly ushered her to sit and placed a plate of food which again had a little of everything. Alex looked and saw that everyone was looking at her waiting to see if she liked it. She hesitantly took a bite of scrambled eggs.

"So, do you like it?" Mia asked before Alex could swallow. Alex smiled and nodded with her mouth still filled with eggs. A small cheer went up from Leon, Jesse, and Brian; Alex laughed along with them. Alexis had laughed twice and it wasn't even 8 o'clock, Alexis couldn't remember ever laughing before.

"Move it, Mia!" Leon in his excitement pushed Mia out from in front of Alexis. He had a big coffee cup in his hand. "Okay since you didn't get to eat any chocolate last night, I decided some hot chocolate would do you some good." He handed her the large steaming mug and she sniffed it suspiciously. "It's not poisoned, it's hot chocolate." Leon laughed. Alex still gave Dom a questioning look to which he nodded.

"Just blow on it first, it's hot." Dom warned. Alexis did as instructed and took a tentative sip. Suddenly her taste buds were overwhelmed with the delicious new taste that was chocolate. The heat ran down her throat and through her chest and she felt herself melt into her seat with a content sigh. Just as the warm was about to leave she took a large gulp.

"Is all chocolate this good?" She asked Leon smiling.

"And better! I've got so many different types chocolate in the fridge for you to try it's going to make you sick." Everyone laughed and Leon felt proud that he was able to share something with her. After breakfast the boys and Letty left for the shop and Mia and Alex straightened up.

"Hey Alex, you wanna come to the restaurant with me? It's boring but it'd be better than being stuck here all day." Alex smiled at Mia.

"Sure! Can I help you too?" Mia smiled at the girl's enthusiasm.

"Sure thing, I'll have you running that place before you know it." The girls laughed and Mia threw arm over the girl's shoulders and was happy that Alex didn't shy away.

"Oh, Mia I forgot!" Alex said stopping before they could get to the door. "Your jeans have holes in them. I can fix them for you if you want."

"Well, there kinda supposed to be ripped like that." She said feeling like an idiot for wearing torn clothes.

"Oh, well that's what Dom said, but I didn't think he was right." She said scratching the back of her neck. Mia laughed.

"Yeah, it's better to come to me for fashion advice. Otherwise you'll be in wife beaters and jeans."

"You can have my ripped clothes if you want." Alex laughed. Mia was shocked for a second.

"Did you just make a joke?" Alex stopped and thought about it.

"Yeah, I guess I did." The girls laughed hard.

"We're rubbing off on you already!" Mia said happily putting her arm over her shoulders.

The two laughed as they walked out the door and made their way to the restaurant. Mia kept the radio off so they could talk and laugh. She explained things to the girl and she could tell that Alex was actually listening and trying to absorb everything around her. Mia went a little faster this time since Alex told her that she liked it, and like a little kid at an amusement park Alex couldn't stop laughing.

"You're going to love driving with Dom!" Mia laughed. The excitement from Alex was contagious. She was like a little kid in so many ways. The day went about the same, Mia would show her how to do something and the girl instantly picked it up. She stayed away from the customers since she still didn't know how to interact with people as well, but anything that Mia needed Alex to do she just had to show her and the young girl would perfect it.

"So she steal all the sandwiches yet, huh?" Alex winced as she turned and saw Letty. While the others had included her, or in Vince's case frightened her, Letty had done well to stay away from her but she made it obvious she didn't like her being there.

"Oh, hi Letty." Alex said a little nervously.

"We need to talk." She said coming behind the counter.

"Letty." Mia said in a warning tone watching Alex step back from her.

"Look, you and Dom need to stop with the whole over protecting thing. How is she going to ever be normal if she has you two going all mama bear whenever anyone looks at her wrong?" Letty wasn't yelling, she was just being assertive. Alex realized that she kind of admired that, she wanted to be more like that.

"It's okay, Mia." Alex said interrupting the girls stare down. Letty gave Mia a patronizing smile.

"Yeah it's okay, Mia." She turned back to Alex and walked her to the alleyway behind the restaurant.

"What do you want with Dom and Mia?" Letty asked before the door even closed behind them. Alex was caught off guard by the question.

"I… I don't know." Letty nodded as if expecting the answer.

"Did you know who they were before you showed up here?" She asked staring down the smaller girl. Alex shook her head.

"So you've never heard of Dom before? Never seen him race?"

"Race?" Alex was clueless as to what Letty was talking about.

"Yeah race, he races cars."

"Like, he tries to drive faster than the other cars?" Letty shook her head at the ignorance of this girl. She wasn't a racer chaser. She wasn't faking any of it to get a hand out. She really was in trouble. Letty felt a pang of guilt that she'd been so rough with the girl, if she was being honest it probably was a bit of jealousy at the way Dom looked at her. But whatever emotions were going through Letty she didn't let them show. As Letty was trying to figure everything out Alex couldn't hold her stare and she ended up looking down at her feet as she was always taught to do.

"Enough of that." Letty snapped. Alex flinched at the words especially since she didn't know what she was supposed to be doing wrong. Alex looked up at Letty but quickly looked away from her stern look. She sighed and reached over and jerked Alex's chin up. "Look, if you're going to be tagging along with us you have to stop cowering down all the time. No one at the house is going to hurt you and we aren't going to let anyone else hurt you either, got it?"

Alex nodded her head looking down before she realized that she was still doing as she was trained. She looked back up at Letty who was cocking her eye brow giving her a look that said she was hopeless. "I mean, yeah." Alex said standing a bit straighter. Letty gave her a little smirk.

"Better." She turned and walked back into the store with Alex following behind her. Letty went back to the garage saying she had to get back before Dom realized she wasn't there. Mia didn't know what Letty had said to Alex but it seemed like Alex was trying to be more outgoing. No one else would see it that way, they'd still see a timid little girl, but she wasn't shying away when a guy came near.

"She even glared at some pervert who said something to her!" Mia told Dom clearly proud of her. Dom was sitting at the bar instead his "cage" and he was eating some fries.

"What'd he say?" He asked Alex.

"Nothing worth repeating." She said setting up the fryer for another batch of fries. If it was Letty or Mia he'd push it but with Alex he just have to wait.

"Wow, you caught on quick. Seems like you'll be running the place in no time." Dom smiled as Alex put the towel over her shoulder.

"I may be slow, but show me how to do something and I'll be able to figure it out." Alex smiled. "So what are you doing for the rest of the day?" Alex asked Dom.

"Some idiot blew his intake manifold gasket by overheating his engine trying to show off for some girl. He took a turn with more toque than his chassis could handle, nearly totaled it. So that's going to take up most of my time." Alex gave him a completely perplexed look. "You have no idea what I just said did you?"

"Not in the least." Alex said with a straight face. "But I'd like to learn." She smiled.

"Mia, I'm kidnapping Alex!" Dom bellowed so Mia could hear him in the back. She came to the front crossing her arms.

"Fine, whatever, just leave me then." Mia said dramatically. Alex was about to tell Mia that she'd stay but saw that she was fighting a smile and Dom was rolling his eyes shaking his head. Mia was playing with her.

"Oh, Mia I know you love me, but you're going to have learn to share." Mia stole the towel off Alex's shoulder.

"Oh get out of here!" She snapped the towel at Alex's butt. Alex let out a little yelp as she jumped over the counter and ran behind Dom so he was blocking her from Mia. Mia stuck her tongue out like a little kid to which Alex returned even though she didn't know why.

"Okay, okay battle's over." Dom announced spinning Alex around and walking out the door with her in tow. Mia laughed as she saw the weird pair walking to the car. Dom was massive in height and muscle where little Alex barely came to his chest and was so thin that she looked like a junky.

However if Alex kept eating the way she did she'd be a healthy weight soon. Leon and Jesse had made it their duty to find foods that Alex hadn't eaten before -which really wasn't hard- and share them with her. Today she'd eaten a burrito from a restaurant down the street, a bag of chips, a soda, a candy bar, and a basket of fries which she said she wouldn't be able to eat by herself so she spilt them with Dom.

Mia was brought out of her thoughts of junk food as she heard Dom burn out and she could faintly hear Alex's laughter. As different as she was from the rest of the group she seemed to fit in well. Mia looked at her stack of books and sighed. Without Alex there to distract her she was going to have to actually study.