The next morning Kaliah woke up feeling majorly refreshed and relieved after revealing her past to the team last night. She just hoped that they wouldn't treat her any differently now that they knew what had happened. When Mia had come up to check the rest of her over for any other cuts she asked if she could pray for Kaliah. Kaliah agreed and actually liked the idea. She asked Mia if she could take her to church sometime just so she could check it out. She had never been to church before, her mom and step dad were not religious by any means what so ever. Mia agreed. Now don't think that this means that Kaliah is just going to change and become all peace and love and Christian and religious and everything, she just liked the idea of for once being able to put her faith in something higher up. She was kind of angry at God though for what she had been through, but she knew that it had made her stronger, and from everything she had learned about God, even with the little amount that it was, she knew that he wouldn't cause harm to anybody for no reason. She just wished she knew what the reason was, perhaps it was to bring her to the team and her new family. She got up and got ready for school thanking God that it was Friday and she had the weekend and races to look forward too. She walked to the school and was a little surprised that the guys let her walk because they normally didn't, but was glad because it gave her time to think about everything that had happened recently. She got to school and went through her classes, all while trying to figure out who started the rumors about her. Lunch time brought her some luck today though as she finally found out who it was. It turned out to be some guy that she had turned down of course, but what almost surprised her was that that was not the only reason he had started the rumors, he had been trying to get on the Tran's good side. Nick surprised Kaliah and ended up fighting the guy, Mike, for her. She was happy at the thought of what he did, but sad that he had gotten suspended for two days because of it. She got outside and Vince was out there to pick her up.

"Hey. How was your day?" He asked almost softly

"It was pretty good. Yours?" She smiled as they drove away

"It was fine."

Kaliah noticed that they weren't going the direction to the garage. "Where are we going?"

"There's this beach I used to go to with my mom. I wanted to take you there and talk to you for a little bit."

"Umm ok." She bit her lip wondering what was going on. After about ten minutes they pulled up to a secluded beach and got out of the car and sat on the hood.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Kaliah asked softly to him

"Well I wanted you to know that you're not the only one on the team with a past like yours. Mine was pretty bad too, and I was doing a lot of the same things you did. Now I don't tell a lot of people this, and the team don't know the full extent, but I felt like I could tell you and you'd 

understand." She nodded for him to go on and he continued. "Well my dad used to abuse my mom and me too. When I was about 14 my mom died, the bastard had killed her. I turned to drugs and doing illegal things and generally acting out. Dom and Mia and their father lived down the street from me. I was pretty good friends with Dom and his father was more of a father to me than my own. Well they noticed something was up with me and started to get worried. One night I showed up on their front porch completely out of it with bruises all over. They kept asking and I finally broke down and told Dom and Antonio, that's Dom and Mia's father, about what had been going on. Antonio was furious and went out of the house and down the street to go have a 'chat' with my dad. I don't know how he did it, but I ended up living with the Torretto's after that and stayed away from my dad. They helped me get clean. They never really knew how far I had been into the drugs, or about the illegal stuff, or the extent of the beatings, but they helped." He finished with his story quietly.

She bit her lip. "Why are you telling me this? Me of all people? I know you said it was because you wanted me to know that I wasn't alone in this, but why not anybody else on the team?"

"I don't really know. It felt like the right thing to do. And I didn't tell anybody else on the team because they wouldn't get it, but you do and I feel kind of a bond with you. Don't get me wrong, the team is my family, but they haven't been through the things we have."

"Alright. So what's the deal with you and my brother?" She asked

He laughed. "That is a long story. It started out with Brian moving in on Mia who I had been in love with for years, but I ended up realizing that I didn't love her, I loved the idea of her. But your brother saved my life and saved the team from a lot of trouble. So I can't hate him, but I still have some issues with him, but they are a lot better than they had been."

"The trouble, was that what happened with the Trans?" Kaliah asked bluntly running her hands through her hair.

"What do you know about that?"

"My friends Nick and Noel had told me that I should keep clear of Tran at school because there is a lot of tension between our team and them. They said Bri shot one of them and killed him."

Vince sighed and started to speak. "Well they wanted to wait to tell you everything, so I can't really say much right now, but when we get back to the fort I'll talk to Dom and Brian and see if it's ok to tell you everything. But what your friends told you was right. Did you ever find out who was calling you a whore?" He changed the subject quickly not wanting to get into it right now.

"Oh yeah I found him today. Turns out he was this guy I had turned down and he had wanted to get in with the Trans also. But Nick beat his ass for me and got suspended." She smiled happily



"So who's this Nick guy and what is going on with you two?" He asked

"He's a cool guy. Nothing is going on. I'm not ready for another relationship anyway right now. Besides you will be the second person to know if there is any guy in my life." She smiled

"And who would the first be?"

"Jesse of course." She smirked

"Should've figured." He smiled. "Let's head back." He said as they got in the car and drove back to the fort.

Sorry for the wait on the update. I've been super busy over the summer and I just sort of fell out of writing. Let me know what you think and if there's anything you'd like to see.