What? An update? Finally?
Disclaimer: I own Shane and I think that's all in this chapter.
The four cars that pulled into the parking lot surrounded Brian's Skyline. Rome was the first person to come charging out of his car and he didn't look happy to be awake. Brian walked over to him to calm him down, but Rome grabbed his shirt and dragged him over to Shane. "Hey… Rome," Shane whispered recognizing the fire in Rome's eyes.
Rome let go of Brian's shirt and stopped practically an inch away from Shane's face. "What the hell, Shane?" Rome yelled.
It took everything in Shane not to run away or throw up on Rome's shoes. "I… I… I—" he stuttered.
"You call us here," he interrupted, "scaring the shit out of us, screaming, 'Brian's missing. I don't know where he is. He isn't in the parking lot,'" he finished mockingly.
"He was missing," Shane retorted.
"He looks fine to me." Rome grabbed Brian's shirt again and put him directly in front of Shane's gaze. He then shifted his glare from the young mechanic to his old friend, letting him go. "You okay, Brian?" he asked in irritation.
Brian looked down trying to smooth out the wrinkles in his shirt. "Yeah, I'm fine. I—"
Rome turned to face Shane. "See, he's fine. Do you know what time it is?" Rome asked.
At this point, everyone had gotten out of their cars and formed a circle around the three in the middle not wanting to intervene. Everyone in the parking lot looked either at a watch or a cell phone. "It's—"
"It's too damn early for me to be saving your ass, Brian," he interrupted Shane once again.
Brian had enough of Rome's assault on Shane and finally got involved. "Leave Shane alone, Rome. I really was gone for a few minutes."
"A few minutes! Almost half an hour!" Shane yelled, getting back his spunk.
Brian quickly turned to face Shane and scowled at him. "That's not the point," Brian hissed. He knew that if Rome realized how long he was actually gone for, then this argument was going to take a really bad turn. "And to think, all I wanted was some French toast."
"I'm never getting into a car with you again."
"Shane," Brian pleaded.
"No."
"You were almost gone for half an hour. What the hell were you doing, Brian?" Rome yelled changing what he was angry about, just like Brian predicted he would.
Brian raised an eyebrow at him. At least he turned Rome's attention from Shane to himself. He knew that he was one of the few people could deal with him when he was on a rampage. "See, you sound worried. You don't have a right to be mad at Shane."
"I swear to God, Brian. If my arm wasn't in a cast right now, I'd kick your ass."
"You should try now, because you couldn't take me without your cast," Brian taunted.
"Don't give me a reason to punch you, Brian."
Brian took a few steps away from his childhood friend. He knew his limits when it came to teasing him, and he knew that he was getting pretty close to them, if he hadn't already crossed them accidentally. "I'm trying to give you a reason not to punch me. Because I'm showing you that there is no reason you should be mad! Tej, come on, back me up here."
"I can't, Bullet," he said with a bit of worry. "I'm a little concerned with where you were too."
"And who the hell are these clowns standing behind you?" Rome added.
That wasn't good, Brian thought to himself. This cannot end well.
"Clowns?" Vince growled, taking one step into the circle from the perimeter.
"Yeah, who are they, Bullet?" Jimmy asked. He moved from his position to look at the cars behind the strangers. "Never seen these cars before in this part of Florida before."
"They aren't from Florida."
"What do you mean, they're not from Florida?" Rome said, mocking Brian.
"Like he said, we're not from Florida," Dom said finally speaking up.
Rome then turned his attention from Brian to the bald man who had just stepped into the circle and spoken. "Then where the hell are you from?" Rome snarled. He needed someone to blame for waking him up that early in the morning.
"California," Dom simply replied. "Do you know who I am? Who we are?" Dom asked, pointing to himself and his team.
That really riled up Tej. "No, the question is, do you know who I am?" Tej countered. He was the racing know-it-all in Florida. He was the guy to know. And he wasn't going to let some guy from California try and take anything away from him.
"I don't give a damn about who you think you are," Vince said stepping up to Dom's side.
"You're Dominic Toretto," Shane mumbled, realized who was standing before him.
Tej's anger suddenly disappeared at the revelation. "Toretto? LA? What the hell are you doing on this side of the country?" Tej asked.
Shane turned and looked at the youngest member of Toretto's team. He hadn't heard a word that Tej had said. He was caught in his own world. "That means you're his mechanic, Jesse Davis. Holy shit, Brian. Jesse Davis complimented my work on your Skyline," Shane said gleefully.
"Still got a lot to learn," Jesse said again.
The tension between the two leaders of the Teams disappeared slowly. "Theodore J. Parker. Tej for short," he introduced holding his hand out to a legend in the racing world.
Dom took Tej's hand in his, not wanting any "You're Tej. Like the garage. The one with the pool in the back?"
"That's me," Tej answered proudly.
"What the hell is going on? Who the hell are these people, Brian?"
"Calm down, Rome."
"Don't even try, Brian."
"Too bad I'm telling you to calm down."
Somehow, Suki made it to the other side of the circle without interrupting the different arguments going on in the middle. On the other side, she came face to face with Mia and Letty. "Hey, name's Suki," she introduced sticking her hand out toward Mia.
Mia shook hands with Suki. "Mia Toretto. Dom's my brother," she pointed after she had let go.
"Letty Cortez," she introduced, also shaking Suki's hand.
"So who are these other guys?"
"The dummy with the chain is Leon, the mechanic is Jesse, and the guy with the temper is Vince. What about you?"
"Tej, Rome, the Asian one is Jimmy. And Shane is the baby."
"They fight like this often? Rome and Brian?"
"This is nothing. Both Rome and Brian are still standing. So it's okay."
"Still standing?" Letty said raising an eyebrow.
Suki laughed at Letty. "Yeah, usually by now, they're both on the ground wrestling. They should be at that point by now. But lately Brian's been showing some sort of restraint since Rome is in a cast." She shook her head and laughed to stop herself from going on a tangent. "Those your cars?"
"Yeah. The pink one yours?"
"Yup. Wanna help me stop the fight?" Suki asked pointing to the mindless arguing going on in a supermarket parking lot.
"Sure. This is a waste of my time," Letty said.
"Okay, so this is the plan," Suki said.
Suki came up with a quick plan to stop the fighting and turn the males' attention from each other to the neglected women. After Suki had the plan laid out, the three girls walked over to their cars and got in. Suki nodded and that was the signal to put their plan into action. The three of them turned on their systems and bass as loud as they possibly could without blowing their speakers.
All of the men involved in the arguments stopped at stared at the three women. That had gotten the attention of the men. Suki shut her car off and the two other women followed. "What the hell was that?" Tej asked.
Suki got out of her car and walked over to Tej. She stood at his side for a few seconds before she punched him in the arm. She waited for Mia and Letty to rejoin the group before she began talking. "I apologize for him being so rude not to introduce us. My name is Suki Koyama. It's nice to meet you guys," she said.
Everyone on Dom's Team instantly quieted at her introduction. "Koyama?" Dom asked.
"You say that like you've know someone with that same name?" Suki said.
"Maybe. You could possibly say that."
"Dom, not now," Mia said. "I'm sorry for my brother and his boneheads' stupidity. We're sorry… Shane?" He gave a nod in reply. "We knew Brian back when he was in LA and we needed to catch up. We didn't know that he was with anyone."
"We did," Leon replied.
Letty responded with a punch in the arm. Leon made a face of feigned pain and rubbed his arm. "Leon, shut it."
"Bottom line is, we're sorry," Mia said. "We've caught up and now we'll be going."
Dom's team all turned around and started to walk toward their cars. "Hold up, I can't just finally meet Dominic Toretto and not invite him a tour of my garage," Tej replied.
"We'll take a rain check," Dom said.
"It seems as if we've overstayed our welcome," Jesse said.
"Hold up!" Rome yelled, turning toward Tej. "We're going to let him come with us when we were just going to kick his ass not even a minute ago. Because his name is Toretto?"
"He declined," Brian said.
"Shut up, Brian."
Brian sighed. He was really getting irritated with his childhood friend. "Rome, I know that you're grouchy because Shane woke you up five hours before you normally do, but your little tantrum is going overboard."
"Hey, you two lovebirds. I don't know what happened between you guys or whatever, but now isn't the time to settle it," Vince finally said.
"This doesn't concern you," Rome growled.
"It does. Because you're talking about us like we aren't even here. I don't know who you are, but I know that I really don't like you."
"The feeling's mutual, bruh."
"You know what? Tej, is the offer for the tour still on the table?" Dom said.
"Yeah."
"I think I'd like to cash in that check now."
Brian grabbed Rome's not broken arm and pulled him off to the side. "Rome, I'm serious. Cool it. I knew these guys when I was in LA," Brian said aggressively, but quietly.
"You mean the same guys that were the reason you had to run down here."
Brian realized why Rome was so angry. It didn't just have to do with him waking up early in the morning. It also had to do with what they made his best friend have to do. "I'm not gonna answer that."
"You already did, Brian,"
"Rome."
"Just because everyone else is all right with them being here, doesn't mean that I have to be."
"I didn't expect it to be. Not off the back."
"Good."
"So, are you hungry?"
"Don't think that just because you're here offering me food I'm going to forget about them."
"I know, but I'm pretty sure I still owe you food for a couple more weeks."
"With every stunt you pull, you add years onto it."
"I'll try and cut back on the crazy stunts. Feeding you is costing me more money than a drug addict trying to support his habit," Brian tried to joke.
Unfortunately for him, Rome wasn't ready to joke around just yet. "Brian, seriously. I worry about you, a lot. Ten years you've been caught up in all of this."
"Rome, don't bring her up, not right now."
"I'm not going to. But I just need you to know, that it's taking me a lot longer to gain the trust of people. Especially these guys who forced you…" his voice trailed off.
Brian knew that Rome had some things to say to him that were left unsaid, and he knew the feeling was mutual. "Rome, I know you like to make your judgments on people when you first meet them, but you can't do that when you just wake up. Get to know them. For the most part, they're good people."
"You got a lot of respect for people who forced you across the country."
"Can you stop saying it like that? This was my choice."
"After their hand was played."
"Rome, no matter what I say to that, you're just going to find a way to use it to hate those guys more."
The two of them stood in silence for what seemed like a few minutes. "You slept with Toretto's sister, didn't you?" Rome whispered.
"Yeah," Brian replied knowing that it was no use trying to lie or cover it up.
"So I'm guessing that this is that Mia chick you were telling or trying to avoid telling me about."
"That's her."
"I'll give her a chance right now, and that's it. Just her."
Brian nodded in gratitude to his friend. They both walked over to the two groups that looked like they were almost getting along with each other. "Mia, you're riding with me," Brian said.
"What?" she replied harshly.
"That is, only if you and you're brother is okay with that."
"You're a big girl, Mia," Dom said.
"And what about my car?" Mia replied.
"And what about me?" Shane asked. "I'm not gonna be some third wheel in your car."
"Mia, do you trust my mechanic to drive your car?"
"Not really," she replied. "He looks really… unfocused."
"That's just how he is. You can't use that against him," Suki defended.
Jesse walked over to Mia. "Mia, you trust me right?" he asked. Mia replied with a nod. He wondered where Jesse was going with this. "Then you have to trust this guy."
"Why, Jesse? I just met him."
"Look at what he did to Brian's Skyline. Look at it." Mia turned her head to look at the silver Skyline sitting behind her. "How can you not trust someone who does amazing work like that?"
"You know that it means something if Jesse is saying it, right Mia?" Letty asked.
As much as Mia wanted to deny it, she knew that Letty and Jesse were right. She sauntered over to Shane, taking her keys out of her pocket. She grabbed Shane's wrist that seemed like it was glued to his side and opened his palm. She gently placed her keys in it, closing his fingers around them. "I'm temporarily trusting you. It takes a lot for you to earn the respect of Jesse, and you seem to be on your way. Take care of my baby, all right?" Shane let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Don't prove any of us wrong."
"All right," Tej said. "Now that we've got our riding situation controlled and everyone seems to be acquainted, let's head to the garage for something to eat."
Suki, Jimmy, and Brian smiled because Tej sounded like he was starting a race. Everyone broke up and walked to their respective cars, with Mia following Brian. She walked over to the passenger's side and waited. "That's the driver's seat," Brian said as he walked over to stand next to her.
"Then I guess I'm driving."
"You don't know where we're going."
"That didn't stop me from getting us here."
"But this is different."
"Fine," she said. She walked over to the other side of the car and waited for the door to unlock. As soon as it did, she was inside the car.
Brian got in, took a seat, and all of the other cars in the lot started. Tej's truck was the first to pull out of the lot followed by Rome's car. Then the cars from both crews left in a line. Mia's car, driven by Shane, was the second to the last car. Brian followed it, ending the line. Brian reached over to turn on the radio, but Mia's hand stopped him. "So, is there any reason why I needed to ride with you?"
"No."
"Really," she said, not convinced.
"Really. I was just offering you a ride."
"When I had my own car?"
"You could have said no."
"That's true."
"But you didn't," Brian stated. "And that's saying something."
Brian smiled, and Mia smiled too. Over the time that they had been apart, and everything that happened to her and her family while she was away, it gave her the time to forgive Brian. Not that she was mad at him at the first place. Just betrayed. But just sitting in the car with him was doing a lot to help those old wounds heal.
"So what kind of food is there to eat at Tej's?"
Brian turned around to look in the back of his car and what he saw made him smile. "French toast."
Wow, more than a year to update a story. And here I was hoping that I would never come to that. Okay, I'm so sorry that it took me forever to update this. Honestly, I lost my inspiration for this. I had an idea where I wanted this story to go, but it changed in the past month or two. Also I was on my Han fix and wrote a one shot story. When I'm going to put it up? I don't know. This chapter is another filler because I expect a lot more to happen. And I feel newly inspired because I had a Fast and Furious marathon. Please review and thanks for staying with me. Lil-Rock