Disclaimer: I don't own The Fast and the Furious series or any of its characters. I just own Eve and Wuji.

Chapter 10

Before she even entered the airport, Eve made a call to Wuji and had him start up all the necessities to overnight her second bike back to the States. She didn't know where she was staying yet so she had Wuji overnight her 2004 Suzuki Bandit 1200S to the only place in LA she knew would be safe: Harry's. With a note for Harry specifically, which basically read that if he called the cops or tried to do anything with her bike, she would shoot him. A bullet was always good incentive, especially when the recipient had no idea where it would go. The flight from Kuala Lumpur's KUL to Los Angeles' LAX on Vietnam Airlines was long and taxing. Going through security, she felt like a terrorist and the price of the ticket alone was enough to piss her off. Seventeen hundred and thirty-six dollars! The earliest flight she could get was at 8:20 PM and she was slated to land back in California at half past nine the following morning. Twenty-eight hours and ten minutes, nonstop, and there was a screaming baby in his mother's lap in the seat directly behind her. It was enough to make her sick. Every time she got on a plane, Eve always seemed to end up with an inconsolable baby screaming and crying behind her.

The moment the plane landed at LAX, she was on guard. Eve was certain she'd been pulled aside, dragged and detained by security until the FBI showed up to take her away. But nothing happened. Eve made it through security without any trouble and stepped outside to breathe the free air of her home country. If only she was back in her hometown on the East Coast, it'd be almost perfect. Almost. Still, she was so totally relaxed that she bummed a cigarette off the first person she saw and laughed almost gleefully before she remembered just why she was back in LA. Pulling out her cell phone, she dialed Brian's number, hoping that it was his cell instead of a disguised office number. And hoped like hell it wasn't bugged. He answered and said he'd pick her up and, true to his word, he pulled up in front of her about twenty minutes later in the typical unmarked car FBI always used. The minute she got in, she couldn't help but laugh as she looked at him. His hair was cut and trimmed, and gone were the sneakers, shorts and T-shirts he'd always worn. Instead, he was in a nice black suit and appropriate footwear for a Fed.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Brian commented as they pulled out onto the highway. "You look pretty different yourself." Eve just shrugged and propped a foot up on the dash. She didn't think she'd changed all that much. Sure, she was a much more relaxed person and her clothing was much more casual, very racer oriented – lots of leather pants and boots – than it used to be but she didn't really think she was all that different. "Would you get your foot off the dash?" he asked, swatting at her foot. Eve laughed at him and, surprised by her behavior, Brian laughed back. "What hell is wrong with you?"

"Nothing!" she answered with a grin. She wasn't in handcuffs so, really, nothing was wrong. "Where are we?" she asked when the pulled into the cemetery.

"Letty's funeral," he answered and she whipped around to stare at him.

"Why?" she demanded.

"Gotta watch for Dom." Eve nodded, that made sense. But that didn't mean she was happy about it.

He parked the car away from the funeral, with the rest of the FBI, and she sighed before getting out as well. Putting her aviators on to block the blinding sunlight, Eve took in the depressing setting before walking around the front of the car to stand next to Brian. It was an extremely small service. There were plenty of street racers in attendance, the cars were a dead give away, but none of them were Dom's. No, none of them were the classic muscle that Dom loved and, remembering the types of cars he had because of Han, Eve already knew he wasn't around. At least not in the view of the FBI. Brian was busy watching the service and, when she followed his line of sight, she immediately recognized Mia, who was softly crying from the front row of the service. With a bowed head and closed eyes, Eve began to mumble a prayer.

"Didn't know you were religious," Brian muttered beside her.

Eyes still closed, she snapped at him, "I'm not, but Letty was. It's called paying your respects, numb nuts." She was still in the middle of paying her respects when another man walked up to Brian.

"Facial recognition software matched Toretto," he said before delivering the bad news, "about ten minutes after he crossed the border." That made Eve smirk; Dom wasn't as dumb as the rest of the FBI thought. "I don't get it. I thought he'd show." Shaking his head, he walked away and Eve asked Brian just who he was, being unfamiliar with the FBI's new LA branch.

"Mike Stasiak. Pencil pusher, total dickhead," he explained and she quirked a brow at him.

"He knows about your record, doesn't he?"

He hesitated before answering, "Yeah."

"Yeah." She nodded, knowing that was the only real reason Brian disliked Stasiak. She was distracted, however, when Brian looked over her shoulders to stare at the hills just beyond and above the funeral. Turning to look as well, she saw a vertical oil driller churning away but nothing else. "What is it?"

"He was here," he stated confidently.

"No shit," she retorted with an obvious tone. "But he's not here now. Let's move," she added, tugging at his elbow and headed back to her side of the car.

"He'll go to Mia," he said as he started up the car and Eve just shook her head.

"Of course he will. Vince is still in jail, Leon is MIA, Jesse and Letty are…well…" she trailed off, not wanting to go there. There was no need to bring up the past with the horrible present, especially with where they were. "And his crew down in the Dominican are in hiding, mostly out of the country so you can't touch them. She's all he's got left. Doesn't take a genius to figure that out, Brian."

"Just thinking out loud, Eve. Geez, you'd think getting fired would relax you a bit," he teased, chuckling at her.

"Please," Eve snorted, "fired or retired, a real agent just gets better."

"So what, I'm not a real agent?" he scoffed. Eve hummed noncommittally.

"Never said that."

Looking at her, he smirked and said, "Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't. You're so paranoid, Barstow," she teased.

"You're still a bitch."

"And you're still a pussy." Looking over at her and shook his head, amused.

"It's good to see you," Brian said with a smile. Eve look at him carefully, surprised. "I kinda missed you." Eve shook her head and smiled, too.

"Yeah, I guess I kinda missed you, too, punk," she admitted. Eve was surprised to find that it was actually true. "So, tell me about why I'm here exactly."

"Arturo Braga," he told and reached behind him to grab a file from the backseat and passed it to her to look through. "While you were chasing me and Dom, FBI also had people going undercover for two years trying to nail this guy. All three came back in body bags."

"A charmer, just my type," she retorted sarcastically, reading over the information, pausing at a picture of Letty. What the hell was she doing in this file? "What's his deal?"

"He's moved more heroin across the border than Escobar did in ten years." Eve whistled, unfortunately impressed. "He's becoming one of the biggest national threats…and we don't even know what he looks like. No prints either. Not even a date of birth." Sighing, Eve closed the file and looked at him confusedly.

"So where do I come into this?" Brian remained silent and she shook her head at him. "Come on, Brian, I know you didn't call me back Stateside just so I could say goodbye to Letty, especially since she didn't like me all that much anyway. We weren't that close, if you remember."

Brian chuckled amusedly, "Yeah, I remember."

"So…?" she pressed.

"So," he mimicked, much to her annoyance, "Braga needs drivers to move his shipments. I got a name, David Park but—"

"That's too common," she interjected. Slipping right back into her former agent shoes, she told him, "If Braga needs drivers and your informant was reliable, have your boss cross-check traffic, illegal modifications, street racing. He'll have a record."

He looked at her with a triumphant smiled and said, "Already thought of that."

"Look at you! All grown up and using your big boy brain!" she gasped, faux impressed. "I'm so proud," she teased, reaching over and rubbing his head. Brian laughed at her antics and swatted her hand off him. This was a side of Eve he'd never seen before. "I taught you good, kid."

"Fuck you!" Brian laughed and she couldn't help but laugh as well. "Look, I'm gonna need your help. Whether or not I get Dom and convince him to help, I need you with me on this." Unsure, he looked over at her and added, "Probably undercover."

"So I can end up like the last three agents that went in?" she questioned. Brian hesitated before slowly nodded, fearing her reaction. "Sure. Sounds like fun." Brian laughed at her, in complete disbelief, while she just grinned madly. "Now," she said, running a hand through her hair and reclining in the seat, "drop me off somewhere while you go to the office and get smarter." Brian laughed and drove to his house, telling her that she had free reign but that she shouldn't do anything he wouldn't.

Since Eve didn't know this new Brian, in her book, that didn't mean a whole lot.

The second Brian was out of sight, Eve immediately began changing into her racing clothes and called up Wuji. He was still annoyed with her for leaving on such short notice, but he got over it quickly enough and went back to joking around with her. At least until she told him she was going to be gone indefinitely. That part hadn't gone so well but she promised to let him know what was up with her situation when she knew. After another ten minutes of bullshitting with him, she called up a cab and rode over to Harry's to get her bike. Harry was surprised, to say the least, when he read the note. He practically groveled, assuring her that he hadn't called anyone, talked to anyone, and didn't even so much as breathe in the bikes direction. Eve just smiled; Harry was still such a nervous man. As she started up her bike, revving the engine and enjoying the sound of the purr, she warned Harry again that if told anyone that she had been in his shop that she'd shoot him before taking off into the streets.

Eve drove around the whole day, re-familiarizing herself with the town, and even paused at Toretto's little garage/eatery where the whole team had worked. It was closed. The windows were boarded up and the entrances into both the garage and the eatery were closed and locked with iron gates. Apparently, without all the team to work the garage, Mia wasn't able to afford the shop. Shaking her head, Eve revved the engine and headed back out into the city. Before she knew it, it was night and it was time to head out to the races. And, in LA, they really weren't that hard to find. Just like Miami, to find the races, all you had to do was follow the cars. The usual party was going on when she arrived and, as expected, she was receiving some very odd looks; either because no one recognized her or because she was cruising without a helmet on, just the hood of her hoodie up.

"I think you in the wrong place, gurl," someone sneered to her right and Eve stopped the bike. Turning to look, she saw a black kid, probably a lot younger than her and clearly over flowing with confidence. He reminded her of Edwin.

"Am I?" she asked in a bored monotone that would've made Han proud.

"Yeah, 'ya are!" Eve scoffed and shook her head. He really was stupid.

"Why don't you put me in my place then?" she replied sarcastically, not believing he'd have the balls to do anything.

"You want some of this, bitch?" Glaring, Eve just revved her engine. No way was some punk ass kid going to call her a bitch and get away with it.

"Oh, I thought you'd never ask. Let's race." The kid immediately started laughing, as did the little crowd that had begun to surround them. "What's the matter? Scared?" The crowd ooh'd at that, shoving the kid around to make him prove himself.

"You ain't got a car, gurl!"

Eve shrugged, "Don't need one."

"The hell you don't!" he argued. "Where the hell you get that crotch rocket? A cereal box?" he laughed, pointing at her Bandit. Sneering, Eve revved the engine even harder and louder than before.

"What is it about driving cars that makes little boys such assholes?" she sneered. "This is the '04 Suzuki Bandit 1200S. Horizontal in-line engine, four-stroke, five different speeds and can go from zero to a hundred faster than it'll take you to jerk off to the latest Playboy." The crowd immediately began cheering for Eve and laughing at the kid, who was shifting nervously on his feet. He was trying so hard not to show it but, after years of grilling perps, he couldn't hide it from Eve. Smirking, she revved the engine once again and told him, "And the torque? Awesome." Not to mention it was custom installed with NOS but he didn't need to know that. "So, come on, big boy," she teased, "race me."

With a scowl on his face, the kid nodded and told her, "What's the wager?"

"How much cash you win tonight?" she asked and he said none, but pulled out what he brought to bet with for the night. Four grand. "Fine. I win, I get the cash. You win, you get my bike."

"I don't want that thing!" he shouted. Eve rolled her eyes and sighed. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her cell phone and called Wuji. He wasn't too happy to be woken up in the early hours of the morning and she apologized, forgetting about the time difference. Once she explained that she was racing and needed to know how much cash she had stashed away, he calmed down and checked out for her. The second he gave her the number, a little over forty grand, she hung up and looked at the kid. "What? Daddy not gonna loan his baby gurl the money?"

Ignoring the crowd's laughter, she lied, "I've got ten grand stashed away. Will that do?" The kid nodded once again, smirking at what he thought would be a very rich future.

"A'ight. It's on." Eve nodded and drove up to the spray painted start line, waiting patiently for the kid to show up with his car. When he finally did, Eve smiled and adjusted the mirrors on her bike so that she could see him in his driver's seat.

"What the hell you doin'?" he shouted confusedly, watching her carefully.

She looked over her shoulder and told him, "I just don't wanna miss that look on your face when I blow past 'ya."

The kid glared at her and gripped his wheel, revving his engine. Eve shook her head, smiling to herself, when the flagger walked up between them. The scantily clad Latina girl pointed at her opponent, who revved up, and then pointed at her. Eve nodded and revved, face completely blank as she stared ahead before checking out her mirror. The kid was nervous as hell, gripping his wheel and biting his bottom lip. Clearly, he was all talk and that would make this victory all the sweeter. The flagger pulled out her bra from underneath her shirt, raised it high in the air – the cheers grew louder as both of them continued to rev in anticipation – looked at both of them before dropping it. Before her bra even hit the ground, Eve and the kid were flying past her, sending her skirt flying up above her waist.

It was the annoying vibrating of her cell phone on the hard wood of the end table that awoke Eve the following morning. Looking at her watch, she groaned at the offending time on the clock on the wall – it was far too early after a night of partying, in her opinion – before grabbing her phone. She had been at the races far longer than she had anticipated. After her win, and her gracious returning of at least a little bit of the kid's cash, she had been invited to the after party. One drink led to two, and two led to a lot more and, before she knew, Eve was crashing at the house to avoid driving her bike drunk. Taking in the area around her, she groaned once again, the pounding in her head assuring her that she had a good time even though she really couldn't remember most of it.

Sitting up and holding her pounding head in her free hand, she answered, "This better be good."

"I got Park," came Brian's frantic voice on the other line.

"Excuse me?" She rubbed her eyes and swallowed tightly, resisting the urge to vomit.

"I got David Park," he repeated.

"And this important to me because why?" she questioned glibly.

"Just get here!" he shouted, frustrated that Eve wasn't the hard ass agent he remembered.

"Brian, no! I can't ju—!" But he had already hung up. Flopping back onto the sofa, she groaned miserably, "Fuck my life."

It took her a good ten to fifteen minutes to even get up the urge to leave the sofa and, when she finally did, her equilibrium was still quite off. After another ten minutes of perusing the kitchen cabinets and bathrooms, she finally found some painkillers and quickly downed them with a Gatorade she stole from the fridge before heading out the door. She was nervous about riding her bike; sure she'd driven her car with a hangover before but her motorcycle? That was something else entirely. After a bit of a wobbly start that began with her missing the driveway entirely and jumping off the curb she finally sobered up enough to weave her way through the streets of LA. Horns were honked at her but she didn't care, just smiled as she weaved in and out of the traffic just like she did back in Malaysia. Traffic really was the only downside of having a car, especially when the cops were on your ass. When she finally arrived at the FBI's LA branch building, she squealed to a stop in front of Brian. He had been waiting out front for her and jumped back when she stopped in front of him.

"Nice bike," he complimented, a little stunned. "Where'd you get it?" he asked her as she pulled off her helmet.

"Had a friend pull some strings and get it shipped over," she answered vaguely as she hopped off to join him on the sidewalk. Following Brian to his car, Eve pulled her sunglasses out of her leather jacket and slipped them on. "So, David Park, how do you know you got the right guy?"

Looking at her, he smirked and said, "He's driving a '98 Nissan with an illegal mod."

"Oh, yeah!" she laughed. "That's your boy! Address?" He told her and started out the car to set out.

She was quiet the entire drive over, still waiting for the pain killers to fully set in on her massive migraine. She did open her eyes however as they turned around the corner of LA Lucky Discount and the first thing she saw? A Nissan. Brian was grinning as he parked the car, immediately getting out to inspect the Nissan. Eve did the same, but she could tell from the look on his face that he was admiring the car more than inspecting it. She couldn't help but shake her head. Some things never changed and it seemed Brian would always was a sucker for a Nissan. The crashing of a window from above broke her out of her thoughts and she looked up to see a man hanging out of it by his feet.

"That your guy?" she asked, casually pointing at the screaming man, but Brian was already running inside the building, gun in hand. Rolling her eyes, she muttered a curse under her breath and followed after him, cursing herself for leaving her gun at Brian's place the entire run up to the fourth floor. When she caught up with Brian, he was standing the doorway where the screams were coming from. Looking over his shoulder, she saw the person responsible for David Park's current position and her eyes widened. "Holy shit…"

"Bring him up, Dom," Brian said calmly, walking towards the ex-con. Park was still hanging out the window, shouting about how "that" was all he knew. What "that" was Eve had to admit she was very curious about. "Bring him up!"

"You here to take me in, O'Connor?" Park was now cursing and Dom shook him, shouting at him to shut up.

"Brian, no!" she hissed at him as he lowered his gun.

Ignoring her, he said, "Letty was my friend, too."

"You weren't anyone's friend," Dom growled lowly.

"Yo! Could you guys talk about this later and pull my ass up!" Park shouted frantically.

"She was running for this guy Braga and things went bad," he explained.

"What?" Eve gasped. "You never told me that!" she accused, but at least that explained why she saw her picture in Braga's file.

"There wasn't any time!" he shouted at her. Sighing, he looked back at Dom, who still hadn't even looked at them, or pulled Park inside for that matter, and told him, "I'm gonna get these guys, Dom. Now let me do my job and bring him up."

"I'm gonna kill this Braga," Dom replied, deathly calm. "And anyone else that gets in my way." Dom suddenly let go of Park and snuck out the door, barreling past Eve and knocking her over. Brian was hanging out the window when Eve gained her bearings and ran over to help him pull in Park.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Park repeated over and over again, even when Brian handcuffed him.

"So, what now?" she asked sarcastically, slamming the backdoor to Brian's car shut. Park was still shouting at them but Eve smacked her hand on the window and warned him to shut up or she'd drag him back up to toss him out the window. That instantly shut him up.

"We go back to headquarters. I'll take Park in for some questioning and you can get your bike, go back to my place," Brian told her.

"That's it?" Walking over to the passenger side, she stared at him incredulously. "I had to get up from a perfectly content sleep to help you arrest this punk just so you could tell me I could go back an hour later?" Scoffing, she shook her head at Brian, who was grinning at her. "You suck."

"You swallow," he retorted childishly.

"You wish, Barstow," Eve sneered. Brian groaned in disgust but she just shook her head, hiding a smile as she climbed back into the car.

About two hours later, Brian called her up and told her that Park had cracked. Apparently, Braga's number two, Ramon Campos, would be holding a street race in Korea Town the next night. The lucky winner got to fill a slot on Braga's team that would be trafficking the heroin between the US-Mexico border. Three drivers were already chosen from previous races – Tash Barilla, Dwight Mueller and Malik Zon – and Park was kind enough to get the FBI into the race. More specifically: Brian. When Eve asked what kind of car he'd be racing, he just told her to meet him at the FBI's garage.

"Brian, you know I can't," she stated firmly. "I've still got a record and I bet your buddy Stasiak, not to mention Penning, would just love to arrest me. Bilkins, too, if he hasn't retired yet."

"He did," he replied. "Look, it doesn't matter. I told you I'd get your charges dropped and this is how I do that."

"What do you mean? What's "this"?" she asked suspiciously.

Brian sighed, "It was gonna be a surprise but since you're so impatient."

"BRIAN!" she shouted.

"See? Impatient!" he laughed.

"Brian, either you tell me right now or else…" She let the threat hang there and he chuckled.

"Fine, fine. Geez, you really need to light up, Eve," he replied. "Look, here's the deal: you help me with this case, you're clean and clear. Penning said so himself." Eve took a breath and laughed as she let it out. "Great, right?" he laughed back. "So just get here, get someone to guide you to the garage and we'll get started."

"Started on what?" she asked curiously, grabbing her leather jacket and heading out to her bike.

"On building my car." She shook her head as she hung up, knowing without a doubt that he was grinning madly on the other end.